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ACROSS EUROPE 
IN A MOTOR BOAT 




Leaving Varna. 



ACROSS EUROPE 
IN A MOTOR BOAT 



A CHRONICLE OF THE ADVENTURES OF THE MOTOR 

BOAT BEAVER ON A VOYAGE OF NEARLY SEVEN 

THOUSAND MILES THROUGH EUROPE BY 

WAY OF THE SEINE, THE RHINE, THE 

DANUBE, AND THE BLACK SEA 



BY 



HENRY C. ROWLAND 

Author of "In the Shadow," 
"The Wanderers," etc. 




ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

HERBERT DELAND WILLIAMS 



D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
NEW YORK 1908 









UOJMRY of C0N«RE«ST 
I wo Ciootes Hects,, * 

SEP 25 1*08 

CLASS *CX- AAC. « 

"2- | ^460 

cop* a. 






Copyright, 1908, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Published September, 1908 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — The Beaver I 

II. — Experimental Voyaging 19 

III. — Across the Channel 39 

IV. — Boulogne to Paris 53 

V. — Locks and Canals jy 

VI. — Through the Highlands 94 

VII. — Into Germany 113 

VIII. — From the Rhine to the Danube . . . 129 

IX. — Along the River 151 

X. — Down the Danube .... . . 168 

XI. — To the Sea 198 

XII. — From Sulina 222 

XIII. — To Bourgas 238 

XIV. — A Storm in the Black Sea .... 264 

XV. — The Wreck of the Beaver . . . .. 279 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Leaving Varna Frontispiece 

The Beaver going overboard at Limehouse, London . II 

Thames barges 23 

"The bargees . . . asked us to give them a tow" . . 25 

In cruising trim: Pomeroy at the wheel .... 29 

London Bridge 35 

Ramsgate Harbor 43 

Locking through at Havre 59 

A lock keeper 63 

"A small, rushing object shot ahead" .... 67 

Rouen 71 

"The Seine from Rouen to Maisons Lafitte is charm- 
ingly picturesque " 73 

Mantes, as we came up the river 75 

At the clubhouse landing, Isle de Puteaux ... 79 

"Through stately avenues of grand old trees" ... 83 

"It creeps through wooded valleys" 85 

A fair eclusiere 89 

"The intimate charm of this waterway" .... 91 
"The black mouth of the tunnel opened before us like 

the entrance of the Styx" 103 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Where the canal enters the moat of the city wall at Toul 109 

"At Toul we crossed the Moselle on a big stone bridge" in 
"The canal wanders and loses itself in a pretty pastoral 

country" 1 15 

"At noon of that day we arrived at the German frontier" 117 
"The whole effect of the place reminded one much of 

Japan" 121 

"We lay in the heart of Strassburg" 123 

" Powerful towboats plowing up against the swift current" 131 
"Onward it goes, skirting kingdoms as it first skirted 

hamlets " 135 

"Winding tortuously between high, thickly wooded 

hills" 139 

"Each day tells a new and changeful story" . . . 141 

"Just below Regensburg we passed 'Walhalla'" . . 143 
"The scenery is of a delicious, half-wild, half-pastoral 

beauty" 147 

"The river scenery is very beautiful" .... 149 
"The water was clear, the scenery was charming" . 155 
" Less than half a mile upstream there was a cable ferry- 
boat" 157 

A village on the upper Danube 159 

Budapest 179 

" Some of these grim eyrees are still in a splendid state of 

preservation" 181 

Hungarian Castle on the lower Danube . . . .185 

A mediaeval Turkish fortress on the Danube near Ilok . 187 
"We found the whole Danube to be an aviary of water 

fowl" 195 

viii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



"A series of precipitous rocky gorges" 

The Iron Gate 

"Lofty, precipitous walls of granite" . 
An old Fortress on the Danube . 
"Fleets of great lumbering vessels" . 
"A sailing vessel of the lower Danube" 
Shipping propeller blades at Sulina 

Varna, Roumania 

A Turkish schooner at Varna 

"Towing behind the Kelet" . 

"'Snaked' through the water at eleven knots" 

"A sea broke under the boat and flung her up on the 

beach" 

"In the end we accepted an offer for the wreck" 

"Salving the motor" 

"Forlorn and forsaken she looked with her brave little 

bow shoved defiantly at the gray cliffs 



PAGE 

199 

201 
203 
207 
211 
213 
225 
241 

245 
249 

253 

287 
297 
299 

303 



ACROSS EUROPE 
IN A MOTOR BOAT 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A 
MOTOR BOAT 




CHAPTER I 

THE BEAVER 

|HE long water trail which those must 
follow who make the voyage from 
New York to Havre does not, as 
most people take for granted, stop 
finally at this latter port. Instead, it 
leads far on, past Rouen and Paris, past Strass- 
burg and Manheim and Regensburg, on still past 
Vienna and Budapest and eastward where the 
great Danube finds its outlet in the brackish waters 
of the Black Sea. 

It is a peculiar route, this long, wet trail across 
the continent of Europe, and one that only a few 
have ever followed throughout its course. It winds 
up against the current of swift rivers and twists 
through tortuous canals; here climbing, climbing, 
through endless locks it mounts from the level of 

i 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

one high plateau to that above it, until the air 
grows rare and fine, and the nights, even in mid- 
summer, are cold. 

Then down again it goes, crossing bridges which 
span wide rivers and through long, inky tunnels 
where the water is Styxlike and the roar of the 
engine threatens to bring down the mountain 
through which one burrows, Down, on down, 
through locks descending the mountains in a flight 
of watery stairs. 

Rivers again; swift, treacherous rivers beset with 
shoals and rocks and traffic, and swinging bridges 
set like traps for the unwary in which one would 
need be caught but once. Then the canal again 
and locks which climb up and over a mountain 
range, descending on the farther side to join a 
lovely, rushing stream which {\vc hundred miles 
below becomes a wonderful, majestic river, sweep- 
ing through yet a thousand miles of hills and for- 
ests, mountains and plain, until at last it debouches 
its turbid waters into the Black Sea. 

Such is the water trail from Havre across the 
continent of Europe. Though little known, a 
number of adventurous spirits have already taken 
it. But it was to follow it throughout its course 
and then to hold right on, and with the same ves- 

2 



THE BEAVER 

sel to take the sea trail beyond, circumnavigating 
southern Europe and so returning to the starting 
point, that we built the Beaver dnd sailed out from 
London to face what Fortune held in store for us 
in a circuit of nearly seven thousand miles. 

There is an old, time-worn Yankee story of a 
trapper who was relating to a " tenderfoot " a tale 
of how his dog was just about to grab a giant 
beaver which had pulled out of a trap when the 
animal scrambled up the bank and climbed a tree. 

" But hold on ! " said the " tenderfoot." " You 
know as well as I do that a beaver can't climb a 
tree!" 

11 Stranger," said the old man, solemnly, " them 
o' yourn is trew words. But this here beaver jes' 
natchully had to climb a tree ! " 

With this tale in mind, before our boat was 
ever laid down in the yard we had named her the 
Beaver, because she just naturally had to do what 
the chances were so very much against her doing. 

Briefly, this was our proposed itinerary : 

Starting from London, to cross the Channel to 
Havre, ascend the Seine to Paris, where it is joined 
by the Marne, ascend the Marne to its junction 
with the Marne au Rhin Canal, follow the canal to 
Strassburg and thence enter and descend the Rhine 
2 3 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

to where it receives the river Main at Mainz, 
ascend the Main to Frankfort and there enter the 
ancient Ludwig Canal. Passing through the Lud- 
wig Canal, to enter the Danube at Regensburg 
(Ratisbon), and to descend the Danube through- 
out its fifteen hundred miles of navigation to its 
mouth at Sulina. Thence to lay a course across 
the lower end of the Black Sea for the entrance 
of the Bosporus and pass through the Bosporus, 
Sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles into the 
Mediterranean. Then, depending on the advance- 
ment of the season, to return coastwise to Cette, 
near Marseilles, and pass through the Midi Canal 
and thence up and around the French coast to 
Havre, or to pass through the Straits of Gibraltar 
and return by sea. 

The shortest route planned describes a circuit of 
about eleven thousand and odd kilometers or about 
six thousand eight hundred and fifty miles. 

The suggestion for this interesting jaunt came 
to me from Mr. Sanford B. Pomeroy, an Ameri- 
can artist living in Paris. In his studio one day 
as we were discussing small-boat cruising, Pom- 
eroy, who is a veteran yachtsman, remarked : 

" Don't you think that it would be interesting 
to get a small, light-draught motor boat and go 

4 



THE BEAVER 

straight across to the Black Sea and then return 
through the Mediterranean? " 

" Very," I answered, and asked him what sort 
of wheels he would need for the boat. 

11 Only one," said he, " under the stern. All 
that you would need would be the screw and a par- 
affin marine motor. It is wet all of the way. A 
friend of mine, M. Stock of Paris, took his launch, 
the Isle des Loups, across last year." 

" You will also need some sails," said I, " if 
you want me to go with you across the Black Sea. 
But why a paraffin motor? They smell." 

" The smell," said my friend, " is not nearly so 
disagreeable as the price that we should have to 
pay for petrol anywhere east of Pest. Besides, 
there are lots of places on the route where we could 
not get petrol, and one can always get petroleum. 
There are long stretches on the lower Danube 
where they have never even heard of petrol and 
where the people would say their prayers to a 
motor car." 

These few simple words excited me, and from 
this point of departure our plans proceeded rap- 
idly. In fact, they grew with such flamboyant 
exuberance that I was presently forced to remark 
that while the idea was fascinating, we did not 

5 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

have the money. Pomeroy retorted that there 
were a great many more interesting obstacles to be 
overcome than the vulgar lack of funds. 

" Besides," said he, " perhaps it cannot be done 
at all, and then we shall not need the money.' ' 

There was reason in this, so we ignored the pe- 
cuniary problem and proceeded with that of the 
boat. After much study of the route and infor- 
mation obtained from M. Stock, we came to the 
conclusion that we required a thirty-five- foot par- 
affin (petroleum) motor boat with a speed of not 
less than nine statute miles an hour and a draught 
of not over two and a half feet when running 
slowly. Also, she must be an able sea boat and 
have a cabin which would sleep three. She would 
also require auxiliary sail power. 

But it was one thing to know what we wanted 
and another to get it. We could not afford to 
build, and being thoroughly familiar with the types 
of French boats, both on the coast and upon in- 
land waters, we knew that there was small chance 
of finding what we needed in France. So we 
crossed to England and spent several days in comb- 
ing the yards of Southampton and Cowes, but in 
vain. 

" We shall have to build," said Pomeroy. 
6 



THE BEAVER 

11 We have neither the time nor the money," I 
objected. 

" As to the time," said Pomeroy, " we shall be 
too late for the water to float us up the Main, 
and just in time to strike the equinoctial gales in 
the Black Sea. This will only lend added interest 
to the trip. But if you are going to talk about 
money we might as well chuck the whole thing 
right now, and be everlastingly disgraced in ' the 
Colony.' " 

That settled it. Better theft, a flat car, and 
drowning in the Black Sea than to disappoint the 
Colony. We had given it out that we were going, 
and there would be no place for us in Paris after 
the end of June. Build we must, but in order to 
spend as little as possible of the money which we 
did not have we decided to design for ourselves 
a boat which could not cost so much to build. 

Accordingly, the studio became a draughting 
room, Pomeroy being the draughtsman and I the 
consulting naval constructor. The result was a 
thirty-five foot boat of the " skipjack " type de- 
signed for, first, economy, second, speed, third, 
safety. We put safety last because we could not 
see how a skipjack with a maximum draught of 
two and one half feet and the scant beam necessary 

7 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

to give her speed enough to shove her against a 
swift river current could possibly be much of a life- 
boat. 

These plans we sent to Messrs. Linton Hope and 
Company, of London, with a letter explaining the 
situation. In a few days we received an answer 
to the effect that Mr. Hope's conscience would not 
permit of his building such a death trap for three 
men to get drowned in, and strongly advising us 
to give up the skipjack type of boat. He expressed 
great interest in our project and offered to build 
us the proper boat for the work at a special price. 
Inclosed, he sent us the plans for a splendid thirty- 
five-foot launch of the Admiralty stock design. 
This boat was driven by a fourteen-horse-power 
paraffin internal-combustion motor, the " Dan," 
constructed by the Jorgensen Motor Works of 
Copenhagen, and was the motor in use par excel- 
lence by the fishermen of Scandinavia, as well as 
by many of the fishermen of Great Britain and 
Finistere. 

As this boat was of a stock design and therefore 
a marketable commodity, we decided that at the 
end of the voyage Linton Hope and Company 
would no doubt be able to sell her at nearly what 
she would cost us, and accordingly we sent in our 

8 



THE BEAVER 

order to build, with a time limit set for her com- 
pletion and delivery to us in London. 

11 And now," said Pomeroy, " it is all settled. 
We have got everything but the money." 

Among the many extras to be considered which 
were not included in the estimate for the boat it- 
self was the dinghy. Being under the necessity 
of economizing at every point, we decided that, 
while the Beaver was being constructed in Lime- 
house at King's Yard, we would employ our other- 
wise idle moments in the construction of the dinghy 
in the studio on the rue des Sablons. Accordingly, 
we went around to a joiner's shop on the rue 
Petrarque, picked out our material and had it sent 
around to the studio. 

We had already asked a mutual friend to ac- 
company us, Mr. A. N. Ranney, an American 
resident of Paris, and he had accepted in some 
doubt as to the actuality of our enterprise. On 
arriving one morning at the studio and finding the 
place turned into a shipyard, with the work of boat 
building proceeding " full bore," his doubts van- 
ished, and before long he was demonstrating the 
inherent craftsmanship which is a part of the birth- 
right of every native-born American. 

Poor little Sampan ! We little thought as we 
9 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

sawed and planed and hammered in the quaint 
old studio, what a tragic end the little boat 
was destined to have, nor how we should come 
across her shattered timbers high up on a Turkish 
beach! 

The Beaver was promised for the 5th of July, 
so the last of June I closed my apartment in Paris 
and crossed to England to superintend her com- 
pletion. On arriving in London, Captain Spooner, 
of the firm of Linton Hope and Company, took me 
down to see the boat which was building in Lime- 
house. Although I had seen her several weeks 
earlier, having crossed with Pomeroy to look her 
over, I was very much surprised to find what a 
big, stanch vessel she had grown to be. 

" She may starve you, but she will never drown 
you," said Captain Spooner, and weeks afterwards 
his words came back to me. 

The Beaver was certainly a love of a boat. Cap- 
tain Saunders, her builder, pointed with pride to 
her picked materials : Norway pine side planks all 
of one piece throughout her length without a butt; 
an American elm keel, a magnificent stick of tim- 
ber; bent frames of the same stuff, light, strong, 
and sound. Her cabin house was of teak and her 
stem and stern-transom of oak. We had stipu- 

10 




sassy 



The Beaver going overboard at Limehouse, London. 



lated for a Sampson-post forward in case it should 
be necessary to take a tow, and there it stood — a 
stick of wood by which she might have been swung 
clear of the water. 

There were certain features which I did not like. 
One was the absence of any decking abaft the cabin 
house, making her an open boat from amidships, 
but the limited space about the engine and cockpit 
made this obligatory. The arrangement of the 
stearing gear struck me as very faulty, the tiller 
lines passing through five leads in all before reach- 
ing the wheel, but try as we might we could devise 
no way of remedying this objection, which was 

II 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

destined to result in some very dangerous situa- 
tions. On the whole, however, the Beaver was a 
fine, big, able boat and ■" all boat under water," 
as the saying is, with full bilges below the water 
line which furnished a remarkable stability and 
counteracted the great weight of the motor. 

The first time that I saw our engine I asked, 
quite innocently: 

" What is that thing for, a drogher or a Thames 
barge?" 

" Dan," as our engine was named, was a two- 
cylinder paraffin motor which, according to some 
peculiar Danish system of calculation, was rated 
sixteen horse power, and in my opinion was nearer 
twenty-five, and he weighed a ton and a half! 
Captain Amundson had Dan's twin in his ship 
when he made the Northwest Passage, and he ran 
for a solid week without once stopping the motor. 
It was always hard to stop Dan, once he got well 
going. 

Dan was a brute any way that you took him, but 
he was a rough, open, honest sort of a brute, once 
you learned his ways. His system bore the same 
analogous relations to that of an automobile en- 
gine that the system of a gorilla bears to the 
human species, but it was " simplified " by the ab- 

12 



THE BEAVER 

sence of carburetor and electric ignition. The first 
explosion was produced by heating the ignition 
chambers by means of blast lamps, and, once 
started, the repeated combustions sustained the 
requisite heat for those subsequent, while the work 
of the carburetor was done by automatic air-inlet 
valves. 

Nothing could be simpler, more effective, or 
heavier. As a commercial engine I know of noth- 
ing better than Dan, but he was about as well fitted 
to the Beaver as a truck horse would be to a basket 
phaeton. If I were to cruise in remote waters far 
from machine shops and mechanisms and fuel sta- 
tions where only certain excellent brands could be 
obtained, I should want Dan aboard ; but he would 
be down below in solitary confinement in a padded 
cell, where he could growl and swear and slam 
without driving nervous people to distraction. I, 
for my sins, was destined to be his keeper, and we 
always hated each other. 

Dan occupied the best part of the Beaver, a lit- 
tle abaft the beam, and he was encased in a gal- 
vanized iron box, constructed to keep you from 
getting at him, and with two heavy, semicircular 
lids like the tops of round-backed trunks, and so 
arranged that when opened in a sea way they could 

13 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

come down with sufficient force to amputate your 
arm or fracture your spinal cord. Dan boasted 
two big fly wheels, one fore, one aft, which might 
have weighed, at a guess, three hundred pounds 
apiece ; and he was equipped with automatic water 
circulation, automatic fuel pump, governor, throt- 
tle, and clutch. It took about ten minutes' heating 
with the blow pumps to heat him hot enough to 
start, and he could be stopped entirely for about 
ten minutes and started again without the lamps. 
It was a better policy, however, to keep the lamps 
going when it was necessary to stop the motor for 
several minutes. 

The propeller was two-bladed, reversible, and 
very strong and simple in construction. The for- 
ward, neutral, and reverse angle of the blades was 
easily controlled by a wheel on the same axis and 
abaft the steering wheel, and these two worked co- 
ordinately with the throttle and clutch, both of 
which were within easy reach, and gave the man at 
the wheel perfect control of the boat which could 
be handled like an automobile. With a strong 
wind in any quarter she could be held in any de- 
sired position, turned in her length, and laid along- 
side without cracking an egg. 

But Dan, the malignant deus ex machina, 
14 



THE BEAVER 

needed every bridle, check, and martingale which 
you could put upon him. He was a brute — a 
morose, grumbling, growling, swearing, powerful, 
hard-working, economical brute — and we always 
hated each other! He belonged by right in the 
belly of some rough-hewn, solid lump of a fisher- 
man, and that was where he would have preferred 
to be, and he never got over his disgust at being 
billeted aboard a light, springy little vessel whose 
supple back gave beneath the powerful downward 
strokes of his heavy pistons. 

The expression, " strain the motor," was a joke 
as applied to Dan. You couldn't strain him ; he was 
far too " husky." You might strain yourself, or 
the boat, or the nerves of the community which you 
happened to infest, but Dan — never! He would 
run without water, without lubricating oil, heat up 
and swear, of course, but pound along at his 360 
revolutions; he would even run without fuel if he 
felt like it; on what I'm sure I don't know! I 
think that he would have run on beer or absinthe 
or castor oil if we had fed it to him; perhaps he 
would have liked it. He never seemed to care 
what brand of grease he got, but he did like the 
night air and always " bucked up " after sunset. 
When he was getting his full ration he worked 

15 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

along on about a gallon an hour, at a cost, in Eng- 
land, of about sixpence. 

But when he was running strong he let you know 
it ; he let you know that he was the one in the boat 
who was doing all the work, and that he'd do it 

as he d pleased, and that it was a sacrifice of 

his strength and dignity to kick along a soft-shelled 
thirty-five-foot pleasure packet without a ton of 
cargo or a basket of fish aboard her. And in his 
rage he would shake and hammer and pound the 
poor little Beaver until I longed to grab up a span- 
ner and beat in his ugly cylinder head ! 

Yes, he was a proper brute, was Dan, and I 
hated him as much as I loved the Beaver, who was 
a darling and deserving of better things than an 
ugly dog of a square-head motor, as, for instance, 
some large white sails ! They were an ill-assorted 
couple, but you see, Dan was really a size larger 
than his younger brother for whom the Beaver had 
been designed, and Linton Hope had given him to 
us at the same price, thinking it better that we 
should be a little overpowered. But to call Dan a 
sixteen-horse power ! — that is funny ! Sixteen-wa- 
ter buffalo, perhaps ! 

On looking the boat over it was very evident to 
me that she was not going to be ready on time, and 

16 



THE BEAVER 

I raised an awful howl, for every day was price- 
less. The water in the Main River was falling ao 
the season advanced, and we had to get through 
the Black Sea before the equinox. So in order to 
make the interval before she was launched as dis- 
agreeable as possible for the builders, I established 
myself in quarters on Bloomsbury Square, and 
spent my days in Limehouse. The British boat 
builder will not turn out a hurried or unfinished 
job, however; twice the day was fixed for the 
launching and twice postponed. The third time 
that they tried to postpone it I formed a hollow 
square. 

" That boat goes overboard to-morrow," said I, 
" if you have to finish her in diving armor! " 

" Doctor," said Captain Saunders, " we are not 
going to give you a half-finished job ! " 

" Then," said I, " you can have eleven months 
to finish it, and I will go back to Paris and drink a 
Pernod and wait." 

That settled it ; no boat, no final payment. The 
Beaver went into the Thames under a ten-ton 
crane. No doubt I was responsible for the week 
of agony that followed when everything went 
wrong, but I probably saved a fortnight at that. 
I sat down and wrote to my two friends to say that 

17 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the yacht was at their disposal, the furniture moved 
in — for I had been fitting out — their beds turned 
down and pyjamas laid out, and would they kindly 
come over and see if anything necessary to their 
comfort had been overlooked? A few days later 
they came and wanted to know why I had not hur- 
ried things along, and complained that the pillows 
which I had bought were stuffed with scrap iron. 




CHAPTER II 

EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

HEY did not arrive, unfortunately, in 
time for the maiden voyage, which 
occurred fifteen minutes after the 
Beaver was sopping up the Thames. 
Captain Spooner, Mr. Gus Saunders, 
and I assisted at this ceremony. A demoralized 
traffic from Wapping Stairs to the Houses of Par- 
liament was also more or less involved, and pros- 
cenium boxes on London Bridge were greatly in 
demand. 

Captain Spooner and Gus fired up. They did 
this generously, until the whole engine was a mass 
of roaring flame and the patrol boat of the Thames 
Conservancy came over and looked on with chilling 
disapproval. I regarded the operation with fear 
and awe, and was glad that Pomeroy was rated en- 
gineer. 

Presently the blast lamps began to roar, and the 
audience on the wharf marched ten paces to the 
rear. I do not think that I have ever so much 
3 19 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

admired the daring of two men as I did that of 
Gus and Captain Spooner. They did not appear to 
care whether they were blown up or not; in fact, 
they rather seemed to covet a martyr's crown. The 
more burns they got the happier they became. I 
told myself that if this was the usual method of 
starting the motor I would sit on the bank behind 
a large tree while Pomeroy got the engine going. 

Presently the flames subsided, but the alarming 
roar increased and volumes of nauseous smoke be- 
gan to pour out of the motor. Somebody on the 
wharf suggested the fire boat. 

" Just the paint burning off the motor," said 
Spooner, wiping his eyes. " Is she hot, Gus? " 

Gus said that he did not think that she was, 
then touched something with his bare arm and used 
a strong Limehouse expression. 

" Let's give her a few minutes more, captain," 
said he. " She'll start better when she's good and 
warm." 

It seemed to me that she must be nearing the 
melting point, and that when she did start it would 
be straight up, but I held my peace and regretted 
not having remained on the wharf. Gus and 
Spooner began to run back and forth around the 
engine, opening and shutting things. Dan wore a 

20 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

sphinxlike expression which seemed to say, " Not 
yet, but soon." 

Presently Spooner said: " Give her a turn, Gus; 
she's hot enough." 

Gus fitted the crank and gave a lusty heave, but 
Dan refused to budge ; would not even turn over. 

" She's a little stiff," said he. " Hold down the 
valves, will you, doctor? " 

In fear and trembling I picked up two spanners 
and jammed down the air-inlet valves, while 
Spooner tended the half-compression lever. Gus 
cranked and Dan began to breathe — chow — chow 
— chowl Gus cranked faster and Dan began to 
cough. 

a Let go!" called Gus. I let go the valves. 
Spooner threw on the full compression. 

Chug — chug — BANG ! ! went Dan — and 
stopped. 

There was laughter from the wharf, and some 
lumper sang out: 

11 Give 'im t'other barrel, guv'nor, and put 'im 
hout o' 'is misery." 

" Too much fuel," said Spooner. " She needs 
regulating." 

Nobody denied it. A black cloud was still hang- 
ing over Limehouse Church. 

21 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" Try her again, Gus," said Spooner. 

A titanic struggle ensued, for Gus was a power- 
ful young man. Dan coughed and grunted and 
swore, and refused to budge. Gus paused for 
breath. 

" She'll be all right after she turns over a few 
times, " said he, encouragingly. 

I believed him, but wondered how Gus would 
be after he had turned her over a few times. More 
than ever I wished that Pomeroy were there to see 
what his duties entailed. 

Having rested, Gus grabbed the crank and gave 
a heave, and with a crash and a roar Dan was off ! 

Everybody looked scared but Spooner and Gus, 
who looked surprised. Spooner began to work the 
levers and Dan went into paroxysms. Spooner ac- 
celerated him and Dan brought up the artillery. 
Spooner slowed him until he wept like a child. 
Then Spooner discovered something that needed 
adjustment and tried to stop him. Dan refused to 
stop. 

" Cut off the fuel, Gus," said Spooner. Gus did 
so and Dan began to run faster. 

" Shove down the valves ! " commanded Spoon- 
er. We did so and Dan began to pant heavily, but 
still ran on. 

22 




Thames bargt 

23 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" 'E's a willin' bloke, 'e is ! " said a navvy on the 
wharf. 

Suddenly Dan gasped and stopped. Spooner 
made his adjustment and Gus cranked again. Dan 
chugged along powerfully. 

" Cast off ! " called Spooner, taking the wheel. 
We cast off and the Beaver glided out into the 
stream. It was in the early afternoon and the traf- 
fic was at its height. 

The Thames in the middle of London is not ex- 
actly the place that I should choose for making 
trial trips in a small motor boat; tramp steamers, 
ferryboats, barges, tows, dumb lighters drifting 
up with the swift tide — all sorts and conditions of 
craft weaving in and out, shooting with the swift 
current or swinging into their berths, maneuvering 
and turning and dodging one another, and con- 
gesting into solid masses under the arches of the 
bridges ! 

Into this vortex plunged the Beaver, Dan run- 
ning unevenly and missing with both cylinders al- 
ternately and together. Spooner was working the 
fuel control, and as we passed a string of lighters 
Dan commenced to fire salutes. A barge threw up 
his hands in token of surrender and the crew of a 
towboat cheered. Dan went from bad to worse 

24 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

and stopped firing one cylinder altogether, and 
Gus, lifting the hood of the motor, discovered that 




"The bargees . . . asked us to give them a tow. 



the fuel pump was all adrift. As we charged up to 
London Bridge, the heart of a swarm of traffic of 
every sort, Dan stopped, the Beaver lost her steer- 

25 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

age way, and we spun down upon the arch broad- 
side on, narrowly missing the bridge pier on one 
hand and bumping along the side of a lighter on 
the other, while a tugboat fended us out from un- 
der the bows of her following barge with a pole. 
Gus was half in and half out of the motor box, 
and the swash of a passing steamer slammed down 
the lid, almost breaking his back. Spooner, a sea 
captain, was using " langwidge " to Dan, and I 
was thinking how nice it would be to have Pome- 
roy and Ranney aboard. 

But everybody was good-natured. The bargees 
grinned and asked us to give them a tow ; the tug- 
boat captain offered to let us tie up to him until 
we got the motor again, and the passenger steam- 
ers sheered out and gave us a wide enough berth 
to sail upstream broadside on. Then, as the cur- 
rent was sweeping us down on some anchored 
barges, Gus got the motor going again and we 
limped along to a berth in front of Lambeth Pal- 
ace, where Spooner wished to leave the boat dur- 
ing her trials — and ours! 

The following morning Gus went down early to 
make some adjustments, and had everything in 
readiness to start when Spooner and I arrived. 

" We will run down toward Greenwich," said 
26 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

Spooner, " and then if the beggar knocks off we 
shall have the tide to bring us back." 

We weighed anchor and started downstream 
against the young flood, and when we had reached 
the Tower Bridge Dan was thumping along so 
powerfully that Spooner began to exult. 

" She's all right now, doctor," said he. " You 
can start for Constantinople to-morrow if you 
like — " and at this moment Dan was seized with a 
choking fit, then began to miss. 

Spooner employed some nautical expressions and 
started to investigate. One cylinder was doing all 
of the work and getting very hot about it; the 
other was shirking and pleasantly cool, firing at 
times in weak, fitful explosions. 

Spooner could not understand; neither could 
Gus. We limped along to Greenwich, where we 
tied up to a brig lying alongside the wall and went 
ashore and ate a silent and reflective meal. After 
lunch we went aboard, fired up again, and Dan 
threw out his chest and rushed back to Lambeth 
as if he loved the place! Spooner and Gus in- 
vented some plausible excuse for his bad behavior 
of the morning, and we agreed to let bygones be 
bygones. 

Pomeroy and Ranney arrived the following 
27 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

morning and wanted to know if I had everything 
all ready to start. I told them that everything was 
ready but the boat and they finally accepted my 
apologies. We went down to the landing, where 
we met the others. Gus fired up, and when every- 
thing was in readiness to start I said to Pomeroy : 

" As you are to be the gray-haired engineer you 
might as well become familiar with your routine 
duties, the most interesting of which is starting the 
motor. Crank her." 

Pomeroy, who is accustomed to cranking his 
eight-horse-power de Dion Bouton, picked up 
Dan's crank, which we might have used as an an- 
chor had it been slightly different in shape, re- 
garded it with some misgiving, adjusted it and 
gave a heave which would have lifted his motor 
car off the road. Dan did not budge. 

" Something is holding her," said he. 

" Yes," said I, " it is her weight. Look at those 
splendid big fly wheels and those Atlantic-liner 
crank shafts." 

Pomeroy tried again and Dan gave him an inch 
or two. Much encouraged he paused to rest. 

" Is she on half compression? " he asked. 

We assured him that he should have every pos- 
sible assistance, and held down the air-inlet valves. 

28 




In cruising trim: Pomeroy at the wheel. 



Pomeroy braced his feet, gripped the crank, and 
heaved. With nothing to pull against but the 
weight of metal he got a revolution, then another. 
We let go the valves, but Dan did not start. A 
look of infinite discouragement passed over the 
face of the artist. 

Happening to glance at the throttle I saw that 
the fuel was turned off. 

29 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" This is too bad," said I. " The joke is cer- 
tainly on me; she was not getting any juice." I 
turned it on. " Now try again, and then if you 
cannot start her we will let Ranney have a go 
at it." 

" I know nothing whatever about motors," said 
Ranney. " You had better not call on me ; I might 
do it some harm." 

" This crank is too short," said Pomeroy. " I 
am going to have a longer one made and then you 
will be able to start her with one hand. In the 
meanwhile I shall save my strength." 

Gus started the motor. I think that Pomeroy 
did crank it once some time during our cruise — 
and then went to bed. Ranney never started it in 
his life. He did not own a share of the boat and 
was afraid that he might break the crank. 

That day's trial trip was characterized by jar- 
ring off every nut on the motor, or nearly every 
nut. I think that Gus must have set them up with 
his fingers. At any rate he paid for it, as after 
each of our numerous stops we let him do the start- 
ing, and it was a humid day in the middle of July. 
Finally, seeing that he was " all in " Spooner and 
I lent a hand. After the motor had stopped com- 
ing apart we got another hot cylinder and tied up 

30 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

to the bank above Chelsea, and turned the engine 
over by hand more times than I like to think about 
to pump the water through and cool things off ; an 
entirely unnecessary form of procedure as we af- 
terwards discovered. 

We landed at Putney for some much-needed re- 
freshment. While sitting in the window of the 
pub. some strolling minstrels came along, looked 
up at us, stopped, struck up an air and began to 
sing: 

" Waltz me around again, Willy, 
Around and 'round and 'round." 

I had heard the song before, but it was new to 
the others and became Dan's " hymn before ac- 
tion." 

As it was then getting late we left the boat at 
Putney and returned to London by tram. Spooner 
and Pomeroy had come to the decision that all of 
our trouble lay in the piping of the water circula- 
tion, and Gus was instructed to make some 
changes. Nobody asked for Ranney's or my ad- 
vice; perhaps they guessed that we were becoming 
prey to the conviction that what they did not know 
about Dan would, if printed, make a splendid 
handbook to give out to beginners. 

31 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

That night Pomeroy and I talked matters over 
and decided that as the trouble, wherever it lay, 
was purely some error of adjustment, we might 
save time by taking over the boat, getting our pa- 
pers, and being all ready to start as soon as Dan 
was. Accordingly, we made our final payment, got 
ship's papers from the U. S. Consulate, sent our 
gear aboard, stores, charts, nautical instruments, 
and had the boat all found and ready to start 
across the Channel as soon as the operation of 
the motor appeared to warrant the attempt, which 
we hoped would be upon the following day. 

Our plan was to run down the river, dropping 
Gus at Limehouse if all went well to that point, 
then proceed to Greenhithe. Here Spooner was to 
leave us, and the following day we were to drop 
down with the tide, cross the Thames Estuary, and 
then, if we caught a good slant of wind and 
weather, hold right on, catching the change of tide 
off the North Foreland and, giving the Goodwins 
a wide berth, lay a course across and follow the 
French coast down to Havre. 

These arrangements were made with no consid- 
eration of Dan, who resented it accordingly. We 
made a good start from Lambeth, and bucking the 
last of the flood had got down opposite the Temple 

32 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

landing when the chug-chug-chug-chug changed to 
k' chug-k' chug-k' chug-k' chug, and at the same time 
the water outlet began to come in spurts. The 
same old story, but worse, for presently the beat of 
the remaining cylinder weakened, became fitful, 
and expired, leaving us swirling around helplessly 
among a fleet of barges. 

Spooner said forecastle words; Gus sighed 
deeply; Pomeroy began to look sagely into the 
motor; Ranney wiped some grease off his sleeve, 
and I got out an oar. Almost instantly we were 
surrounded by wherries and Whitehall boats, which 
seemed to ooze out of the slimy crevices of the 
wall. They were like sea gulls fighting over a 
dead porpoise, or buzzards come to a dead don- 
key. Some actually tried to get a line to us with- 
out our consent, but Spooner talked to them in 
the fluent dialect of the India Docks and Gus 
contributed some Limehouse bonmots, and they 
sheered off. We paddled alongside a lighter and 
made fast. 

" Well, Mr. Pomeroy," said Spooner, " what 
do you think of your boat? " 

" She is very interesting," said the artist. 

Spooner, a thoroughly good fellow and very 
sore about our ill luck, laughed and said: " If I 

33 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

were the buyer and you were the seller I'm afraid 
that I would not take it as you do." 

Pomeroy said that there was no use in taking it 
any other way, and told him the story of the 
beaver. The tale cheered him up considerably. 

After some delay we succeeded in starting the 
motor again and crawled along downstream, our 
object being to find a berth where we could tie up 
and work at the motor without getting mashed in. 
The river knew us pretty well by this time, and 
everybody was interested and sympathetic and, 
seeing us crippled, gave us the right of way.. As 
it was evident that we could not run much longer 
we got over on the Wapping side and there had a 
very narrow escape from being crushed by the 
steamer Oriole, which was breasting into her berth. 
We got clear of her by about three inches and 
then, swirling down through a tangled meshwork 
of traffic of every sort, finally reached Limehouse 
pier, Spooner working the automatic feed pump by 
hand. 

Immediately on making fast we were sur- 
rounded by a swarm of wharf rats, lumpers, nav- 
vies, and " bums," such as only this, the toughest 
part of London, can produce. Spooner scanned 
this mob with an experienced eye. 

34 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

" We must keep an eye to windward with this 
gang," said he. " I'll pick out the toughest tough 
of the lot, and hire him to beat in the heads of the 



/••"i ( m 



•si. /»' ••' 




London Bridge. 



other toughs, or they'll be aboard and steal the key- 
hole out of the cabin door." 

The rest of the day was spent in trying to find 
the source of the missing cylinders, but without suc- 
4 35 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

cess. When the others had expended their supply 
of technical terms I took a spanner and started to 
take off the forward cylinder head. They watched 
me in cold disapprobation. 

" What do you want to do? " asked somebody. 

" We will call it an explanatory laparotomy," 
said I. 

" I wouldn't unseat that cylinder head; it has 
been carefully packed, and you will loosen the 
packing and it will all have to be done over again. 
What do you want to take it off for? " 

I answered that although that was the cylinder 
which refused absolutely to work they had exam- 
ined everything else about the motor and never 
touched the cylinder itself, which was theoretic and 
not practical surgery. The cylinder was suffering 
from a pathological condition, whether functional 
or organic, and I was going to look at it. 

Spooner regarded me thoughtfully, then grabbed 
up a wrench and lent a hand. We got off the 
cylinder head and found the asbestos-paper pack- 
ing full of water. There was also some water in 
the cylinder itself. 

" Well, I'll be d d! " said somebody. 

I agreed with him. Here was all of this talent 
frittering around and spouting the jargon born of 

36 



EXPERIMENTAL VOYAGING 

the comparatively recent revolution of power in ap- 
plied mechanics, yet while knowing the physiology 
of Dan's thermotaxic system, failing to apply it! 
When they read this and see how I have " ex- 
posed " them, they will be angry. I am glad of 
it. That is one of the objects of this article. 

We were destined to have a good deal of trouble 
from the same source until we learned how to pack 
a cylinder head by soaking the asbestos paper in oil 
and smearing it with plumbagine. But we had 
found the source, as somebody expressed it, of 
" the whole bloody trouble." 

Englishmen consider " bloody " an improper 
word; they also correct us for saying " bug " and 
for using certain other convenient generic terms. 
Personally, I consider " bloody " a splendid word, 
and " Lime'us " could not exist without it. It fills 
so admirably the place of every expletive adjective 
and adverb in the English language, and is neither 
obscene nor blasphemous, simply vulgar, which is 
often synonymous with " popular." We had an 
illustration of its utility that night. Spooner and I 
were ashore, and during our absence a local water- 
man came down and discovered to his rage that 
his wherry had been shifted to make a berth for 
the Beaver. 

37 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" I bloody calls this a bloody piece o' bloody 
h'impertinence ! " says he, and whips out his knife 
and slashes at the Beaver's warps. Our paid pro- 
tector promptly grabbed him by the throat, choked 
him into submission and kicked him ashore, then 
returned to the boat. 

" Such bloody be'avior," says he to Ranney, " is 
werry bloody wrong, sir." 

Ranney agreed and asked him the cause of the 
row. 

" 'E was bloody h'angry becuz 'is bloody boat 
'ad been shifted, sir. Such conduc' is bloody h'un- 
called for and h'upsettinV' 

We three slept on the Beaver, and the next 
morning Gus repacked both cylinder heads. On 
firing up Dan started off with a lusty roar that bid 
defiance to the thousands of leagues before him. 
Spooner had joined us, and bidding Gus good-by 
we backed out into the stream and started down 
river. Dan churned along strongly and evenly, 
and it really seemed as if our troubles were over. 

On reaching the measured mile we ran over the 
course both with and against the tide, and the 
average gave us a speed of nine statute miles an 
hour. 




CHAPTER III 

ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

|HAT night we lay off Greenhithe, we 
three sleeping aboard and Spooner 
returning to London. Much to our 
delight he said that he would try to 
join us the following morning for the 
run across the Channel. Quite aside from his busi- 
ness interest in the Beaver, Captain Spooner was too 
much of a sportsman to have let us start out on a 
run which, considering the recent performances of 
Dan, entailed some actual risk, without being 
present to share it with us. We were very glad be- 
cause, aside from his being a most congenial ship- 
mate, he knew the Thames Estuary and the Chan- 
nel as he did his own quarter deck, and one cannot 
overestimate the value of accurate local knowledge, 
especially in such a stretch of water as the Estuary. 
True to his word Captain Spooner joined us the 
next morning with the cheering news that he was 
free to accompany us as far as Boulogne or Dieppe. 
As we had missed the morning's ebb tide we spent 

39 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the day in Greenhithe laying in stores and fuel. 
At 8.40 P.M. we got our anchor and started out, 
and by ten o'clock had reached the Estuary, where, 
as the weather conditions seemed to indicate fog 
for the night with an easterly blow in the morning, 
we decided that it would be better to put into Hole 
Haven for the night than to hold on across. The 
Thames Estuary of a thick, blowy night seemed an 
even less attractive place for a small, open motor 
boat but half tuned up than did the river itself in 
the heart of London. 

Accordingly we ran into Hole Haven and 
dropped anchor in the midst of a fleet of eel boats. 
The next morning the weather had cleared, so we 
got under way and started out, but had not quite 
laid the Chapman abeam when the forward cylin- 
der stopped firing. 

Captain Spooner's comments went far toward 
counteracting the depressing influences of the situa- 
tion. 

" Who'd ever have thought," said he in con- 
clusion, " that this bloomin' bombshell would serve 
us a pup like this ! " 

But we knew now where the trouble lay, and 
soon had the cylinder head off and repacked, when 
Dan started with renewed vigor. 

40 



ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

" We had better put into Ramsgate," said 
Spooner, " and get this packing job done by a pro- 
fessional. There is something faulty with our 
methods.' 5 

Dan proved the truth of these words by shortly 
beginning to miss with both cylinders, but he kept 
going, and we laid a course for Ramsgate by the 
11 Overland Passage." We passed the Nore Light 
Vessel, and were beginning to look hopefully 
toward the North Foreland when Dan gave a 
grunt and stopped. 

It is one thing to have your motor fail you in 
the Thames and another to have it do so halfway 
across the Thames Estuary, a body of water justly 
dreaded for its treacherous shoals, swift tides, fogs, 
and exposed to the sweep of Channel gales. There 
was no refuge to be had, so we examined Dan with 
much interest and found that not only was the 
cylinder packing leaking again, but a poorly sol- 
dered fuel pipe to the after cylinder had broken in 
the joint and was squirting the oil everywhere but 
into the ignition chamber; also that the fuel pump 
itself had worked loose again and was rocking on 
its bed and so lessening its thrust. 

We served the fuel pipe and got it fairly tight, 
hardened down the loosened nuts and then started 

41 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the motor, which limped along in a jaded manner, 
threatening every moment to stop, and often ful- 
filling the threat. Each time it did so we managed 
to start it again after a Graeco-Roman struggle 
with the crank, and after a while the North Fore- 
land loomed close ahead, with Ramsgate just 
around the other side. 

" If the bloke " (this was not the word, but it 
will do) " will only take us around the buoy," said 
Spooner, " we shall be all right-O. The tide is 
fair on the other side." 

All hands got to work at Dan, Spooner working 
the fuel pump by hand; the overworked cylinder 
was kept cool by opening the drip cock on its water 
jacket and plugging the water-circulation outlet, 
thus forcing the cold water around the hot cylinder 
and out into the bilge, whence one hand pumped 
it out with the bilge pump. So, coaxing and bully- 
ing and jockeying Dan into a final spurt for the 
Ramsgate breakwater, we limped around the end 
of the jetty, the focus of attention from an admir- 
ing Sunday crowd of picnickers. 

Once inside Spooner threw the throttle wide. 

" Now kick yourself alongside, you 

you ! " said he, and with a volley of salutes which 
awoke the echoes of the town, Dan churned the 

42 




43 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

water and expired, while the Beaver, holding her 
way across the basin, glided gracefully up to the 
jetty, where ready hands caught up our heaving 
line. 

Our arrival in Ramsgate harbor was attended 
with a rather humorous incident. The tide was 
very low, and as we slid up to the sea wall a boat 
containing two of the harbormaster's men came 
alongside to give us a berth. One of them, a big, 
beefy fellow, wishing to get up on the wall, bor- 
rowed our boat hook and, catching it in an iron 
ring overhead, braced his feet against a crevice in 
the stones and started up, hand over hand. Almost 
at the top the hook broke from a flaw in the iron, 
and down came the sailor, landing like a ton of 
brick half in and half out of his boat. His mate 
grabbed him and hauled him aboard. 

It looked to us as if the man must have broken 
his back, staved in all of his starboard ribs, and 
started some of his joints. It sounded that way, 
too. But he scrambled up, and the first thing he 
did was to examine the thwart and gunnel of his 
boat. Then he looked at the boat hook. 

" W'y blarst me," says he, " this 'ere was the 
bloody thing as done it! " He turned to one of 
us. " It's lucky as 'ow the blighter broke now, sir, 

44 



ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

not doin' no h'especial 'arm to nobody. H'other- 
wise it might ha' served ye a pup some d'y when 
you was dependin' on it! " 

We told him that we considered that he had 
done us a service, at which he seemed much 
pleased. 

This was the twenty-first of July and a Sunday, 
so that we were obliged to wait until the next 
morning to get a mechanic to come aboard and 
repack our cylinder heads. When he saw the 
sort of asbestos paper which had been used, he 
said: 

" That stuff is no good. It soaks the water up 
like lamp-wicking, and carries it over into the cylin- 
der head, and if there's any one thing those engines 
hate to burn, it's water! " 

Dan, our motor, certainly hated it. He did 
not care particularly what his liquor was, but he 
liked it straight ! 

The professional repacked our cylinder heads 
and water joints, soldered the broken fuel-feed 
pipe, and by eleven o'clock we were ready for sea. 
The day was cloudy with a w. s. w. wind and 
showers of rain and a generally unsettled-looking 
condition of the weather, but the sea was smooth, 
and we had already lost so much time that we de- 

45 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

termined to try for the French coast. Accordingly, 
we " heated up," turned over the motor, and 
chugged out of the breakwater. 

Dan thumped along strongly and steadily, but 
we were careful not to comment on the fact. If 
I were to write a Handbook for Beginners on 
the running of internal-combustion engines, the in- 
itial precept would be : " Never praise the motor ! " 
Aboard a sailing vessel I am not superstitious ; that 
is, not very. I don't mind capsizing a hatch cover 
or leaving a bucket of water standing on the deck, 
or being shipmates with a Baptist parson or an 
umbrella. In the transatlantic race for the Kaiser's 
Cup in 1905, I threw enough money over the taff- 
rail to bring a gale of wind, . . . and it did! But 
shipmates with a motor, and especially a motor 
which had shown the diabolic ingenuity which Dan 
had for stopping in the wrong place, I am con- 
stantly the prey to superstitious fear. Dan knew 
every word that was said about him ; but while ugly 
he was at the same time subject to abuse and in- 
timidation. Later, in the Danube, when I had 
learned a lot of nice, new, strong and vigorous 
terms of abuse, I always commenced the day by 
lifting the hood and showering them on Dan, and 
*it kept him right up to his work. That is a good 

46 



ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

thing for the young motorist to know. The older 
ones all appear to have discovered it. 

So we put out and laid a course through the 
haze for the South Foreland, and by one o'clock 
had laid it abeam. A little later we sighted the 
Channel Squadron maneuvering, and by two 
o'clock the mist had blown away and the day be- 
come a lovely one. We were by this time in mid- 
channel, and I suggested that it was an appropriate 
time to break out and hoist our American ensign. 
We had not done so earlier, owing to Dan's vil- 
lainous behavior. Upon seas where an American 
vessel is a rare but time-honored guest we were 
unwilling that the Beaver should bring contumely 
upon her flag by spinning down with the tide stern 
first, or tied up alongside a garbage scow, or, per- 
haps, drag ignominiously into port behind some 
aromatic trawler. A sailing vessel loses nothing of 
her dignity by towing; a power boat does. " Yew 
'ave legs — w'y doant yew stand on 'em ! " as a 
bargee complained one day when we, in a disabled 
condition, grabbed his rail. 

But Dan's functional infantile complaint had 
now been remedied, so we got out our American 
ensign and mastheaded it on our British boat with 
its Danish motor, and pledged the good old flag 

47 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

in good old Scotch ! It was sort of an international 
event. Spooner, who was a New Zealander, made 
a few appropriate remarks, and we took another 
drink to his flag, the one under which the Beaver 
had been launched. We would have taken still an- 
other drink to the Danish flag, in honor of Dan, 
but we were afraid that he would get conceited and 
stop, and we were in mid-channel with a boat all 
open abaft the cabin house, and not a rag of sail 
aboard. So somebody hid the whisky. 

Poor little flag ! The only one the Beaver ever 
owned! Many nations looked upon it; the citi- 
zens of some saw it for the first time upon their 
inland waters, and many people actually asked us 
what country's flag it was! Weeks later when I 
flew it for the last time — reversed — and watched 
the fierce gale whip it into ribbons, the picture of 
our first " colors " came back to me. 

After " colors," Spooner made us a famous 
stew — an Irish one — and by the time that we were 
beginning to recover from the stupor following the 
gorge, Cape Griz Nez was looming up on our port 
beam and the Beaver made her first bow to La 
belle France, which she was destined to traverse. 
As it was then getting late in the day and Spooner 
had to start back to London the morning follow- 

48 



ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

ing, we decided to put into Boulogne for the night. 
On getting into the harbor we found the berth a 
very noisy and unquiet one, owing to the big fleet 
of fishermen which are constantly coming and go- 
ing. So we waited until slack water and then ran 
into the inner basin, where we found a snug place 
alongside a brig, whose captain we subsidized as 
watchman. 

As soon as we had tied up, two customs men in a 
small boat came alongside and asked us if we had 
come from America. We said: "No, we have 
come from England." 

" But the boat must have come from America," 
they insisted, " because you are flying the Ameri- 
can flag." 

" That is because we are Americans, and it is 
our boat." 

" Oh; so that is it. Whereabouts in America do 
you live? " 

" Well, you see, although we are Americans, we 
live in Paris." 

They couldn't make it out at all. I don't know 
that I blame them. Presently one of them asked: 

" Where are you bound? " 

" To Constantinople, then back through the 
Mediterranean and up the coast to Havre." 

49 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Most men in their position would have thought 
•that we were lying, but they accepted our word 
with such perfect faith that we explained to them 
our trip, in which they were much interested. We 
chatted for a while, and then one of them said : 

" Oh, by the way, you haven't any contraband, 
have you? " 

" Only a few cigarettes for ourselves. ,, 

"That does not matter; merci, messieurs . . . 
au Voir messieurs, bon voyage." And they bowed 
and pulled away, and the terrible formality of the 
customs was over. 

This was the treatment which we received from 
the customs all of the way: Germany, Austria, 
Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria, Roumania, Roumelia, 
Turkey — no one ever doubted our words. We 
never did have any contraband, of course, that not 
being our mission, and we told them so, and they 
believed us. They looked at our flag and said: 
"These are Americans and, therefore, truthful; 
besides, they are our guests, and it behooves us to 
treat them as such." This, at least, was the way 
in which they acted. They did not ask us to swear 
and then force us to submit to the insult of having 
some official try to prove us liars. 

Another thing which I should like to credit the 
5° 



ACROSS THE CHANNEL 

continent of Europe with in this connection is the 
honesty of her peoples. In crossing the continent 
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, we re- 
peatedly left the boat tied up to the bank in differ- 
ent rivers and canals, and entirely unguarded, at 
all hours of the day and night. The cabin, which 
contained many valuable articles, we naturally 
locked up, but the cockpit and engine room were 
entirely open and contained many articles of some 
value, such as tools, lanterns, oil cans, drums of 
petroleum and expensive lubricating oil, and coils 
of rope with blocks, many of which were in plain 
sight and in reach from the bank ' itself. Yet 
throughout the course of the whole voyage we 
never missed one single article. Only twice did we 
engage a watchman, and that was to keep the chil- 
dren from climbing all over the boat and, perhaps, 
casting off the warps, as the current was swift. In 
time we gained such faith in the honesty of the 
people that we would not even take the trouble to 
put articles which were apt to excite cupidity, as 
sheath knives, out of sight. Ranney one day 
dropped a bucket overboard and did not tell Pome- 
roy, dreading his comments on such carelessness. 
When Pomeroy in time missed the bucket, and was 
obliged to conclude that some one had stolen it, 
5 51 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

his grief over his shattered confidence and lost 
ideals was so great that Ranney had to confess. 

Apparently these common people are just nat- 
urally and simply honest. One day, early in the 
voyage, I asked the friendly captain of a French 
canal boat if it were safe to go off and leave the 
boat unprotected. 

" Why, perfectly," said he, in a tone of surprise. 

" There is then no danger of things being taken 
from the boat? " 

" Not at all; those things in the boat do not be- 
long to other people; they belong to you, so nat- 
urally nobody will take them away! " 

I decided that such a country was wrongly 
named; it should be called Altruria ! 

Certainly no foreign vessel was ever better 
treated in strange ports than was the Beaver. At 
first we wondered, then became accustomed to it, 
and finally, I fear, a bit spoiled by it. But such is 
human nature! 




CHAPTER IV 

BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

|N the morning Spooner came down to 
see us off, and as soon as Pomeroy had 
returned from the bureau of the cap- 
tain of the port with our papers, we 
heated Dan up, and, bidding Spooner 
good-by with much regret, started out to sea. I am 
sure that no yacht builders ever did more for a cus- 
tomer than did Linton Hope and Company for us, 
through Captain Spooner. He cheerfully shared 
the trials and dangers of the harrowing days spent 
in demoralizing the traffic of the Thames in Lon- 
don river and those of our uncertain trip across 
the Thames Estuary to Ramsgate. Unsatisfied 
still with the dependability of the motor he volun- 
teered to cross the Channel with us, and would 
have gone on to Havre had not positive engage- 
ments compelled his return to London. 

We ran out around the buoy and had laid a 
course down the coast, keeping a good offing, when 
suddenly the forward cylinder began to fire fit- 

53 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

fully; but by this time I had learned a few of 
Dan's cunning little ways, and soon had him run- 
ning evenly again. Being the only one aboard who 
could, or would, turn the engine over, I had taken 
on the duties of mecanicien, Pomeroy being navi- 
gator, while Ranney was speedily promoted from 
deck hand to the billet of quartermaster, and did 
most of the steering. 

The weather was fine, with a fresh easterly 
breeze; a fair wind with a following sea which 
helped us along considerably. As the conditions 
were so favorable we decided to make a run di- 
rectly to Havre, and accordingly took a broad 
offing, and by noon had laid the Etaples Light 
abeam. During the day the wind backed into the 
north and freshened, so remembering the amount 
of trouble which we had had with Dan and his 
capacity for sulking at the critical moment, we de- 
cided to keep well offshore, which would give us 
time to work over the motor, if necessary to stop 
for any length of time, without finding ourselves 
up against the cliffs. Accordingly, we kept well 
off, sometimes losing the land as we cut across the 
big bights of the shore, but cutting in close again 
where the headlands projected. This coast is a 
verv bold one and visible in clear weather for, per- 

54 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

haps, twenty miles, so that although we had no 
log and distrusted Dan's demoralizing influence 
upon our compass, there was no possibility of our 
losing our bearings. 

Rounding Cape Alprech and much nearer to the 
cliffs than was pleasing to me, Dan suddenly swore 
and stopped. It was a very trying moment; the 
land was close under our lee — a falaise of sheer 
cliffs with the seas spouting high at its base; the 
wind had freshened and there was no shelter of 
any sort which we could reach. The Beaver lost 
her way, swung broadside on, and began to drift 
rapidly toward the shore, rolling heavily in the 
rising sea. 

Also it was personally inconvenient, as I hap- 
pened to be up forward taking a bucket shower 
bath, but I lost no time in getting aft and starting 
a rapid clinical examination of Dan. This speed- 
ily showed the fuel pump to be all adrift, the lock 
nuts having loosened, which permitted of its rock- 
ing on its base, thus losing the force of the stroke. 
It did not take long to remedy the trouble ; never- 
theless, we had drifted pretty well in toward the 
reefs before we got the nuts hardened down and 
the motor going again. 

Such an incident is very disturbing. Before this 
55 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

occurred we had put past misfortunes well back in 
the lockers of our minds, and were giving ourselves 
up to the pleasures of the run in open sea and the 
delight of the charming marine pictures surround- 
ing us. A loose nut and how different the inter- 
pretation to the mind of every detail ! The mag- 
nificent sheer cliffs bathed in mauve and purple 
shadows and fringed with a lacework of flying 
spray became grim, cold, and pitiless. The fresh, 
invigorating north wind carried a menace in every 
flaw, and each rising sea, helpmates before, 
growled some surly threat as it passed. The com- 
radeship we had felt for it all was turned in a 
flash to combativeness, and all because a loose nut 
had reminded us what we might expect of this 
good-natured, helpful monster we bestrode if once 
we fell beneath his power. Such a feeling rarely 
comes to one aboard a sailing vessel; at any rate, 
it only comes when the fight is really on and the 
challenge has been offered and accepted, but it 
doesn't come so traitorously in the midst of kindly 
surrounding conditions. 

Afterwards, we found ourselves listening con- 
stantly for the slightest change in the beat of the 
motor. This alertness was quite involuntary, but 
we got tired of it after a while, and decided that 

56 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

as we were due to meet a strong head tide which 
we would have to " buck " all night long and could 
not in any case make very good progress, we might 
as well put into Dieppe and pass a comfortable 
night. As somebody expressed it: 

" She may run right through to Havre without 
stopping again, but if she should stop it might be 
hard to find out, in the dark, what was wrong, and 
anyway, what's the use of getting heart disease 
every time she misses? " 

Nevertheless, the chances are that we would 
have gone on just the same had we not met the 
incoming tide off Treport and found what very 
slow work it was driving into it. Also it kicked up 
a nasty, lumpy sea which made steering of any kind 
very difficult and steering a compass course almost 
impossible. The compass would " turn 'round and 
stare you in the face," as sailors say, so realizing 
that by keeping on we should only use up much 
oil and energy and gain very little time, we de- 
cided to put into Dieppe. 

On arriving off the breakwater we found a very 
nasty condition of things for entering. At certain 
phases of the wind and tide a sailing vessel cannot 
get into Dieppe, nor for that matter could a motor 
boat as open as was the Beaver. There is a tide 

57 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

rip just outside the harbor mouth with a sea which 
runs all ways at once, while a current like a mill 
race strikes across the opening at right angles. If 
one turns in around the tideward jetty too soon 
there is a splendid chance of being dashed into it 
by a back eddy, whereas if one does not turn in 
soon enough the slash of the current is apt to fling 
the boat against the breakwater on the other side. 
The best way is to work up against the tide, and 
when just in the right position turn quickly and 
slip in. We accomplished it in this way with- 
out any trouble, but were obliged to get dan- 
gerously near to the rocks of either jetty. No 
doubt the local fishermen can go in and out at 
most times; in such a place local knowledge is, 
of course, usually able to compete with local 
conditions. 

We sailed from Dieppe the following morning 
at ten. The weather was perfect, with a fresh, 
following wind and sea. The bright, yellow sun- 
light brought out magnificent effects of light and 
shadow in the sheer, cream-colored cliffs, the beauty 
of which Dan kindly permitted us to enjoy. A 
French torpedo boat passed us, flying to windward 
in a shower of spray, and several times we were 
able to exchange pleasantries with the gurry- 

58 




59 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

smeared crews of trawlers. Passing Etretat, where 
we had several friends, we ran in as close as we 
dared, which was not, however, more than near 
enough the shore for us to distinguish figures, as 
the wind was directly on the beach and there is no 
shelter of any sort. We learned afterwards that 
we had been sighted and recognized. 

We arrived off Havre at about half-past four, 
having made the run from Dieppe, one hundred 
and one kilometers, in six and a half hours; poor 
time, considering the fair tide and wind. As the 
tidal conditions were unfavorable for going on up 
the Seine, we decided to spend the night in Havre 
and to save time the following morning by passing 
through the Tancarville Canal, which enters at 
Havre and cuts across the marshes of the Seine 
estuary for fourteen and a half miles, joining the 
river at Tancarville. 

That night we lay in La Citadele basin, next to 
the wharves from which the French liners sail. 
The dock master informed us that we really had 
no business there, as it was strictly against the rules 
to admit internal combustion motor boats, but upon 
our assuring him that we burned an inexplosive 
compound, lamp oil, he allowed us to remain on 
condition that we would promise not to blow up 

60 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

the warehouse of the Compagnie Generale Trans- 
atlantique. 

As Dan was such a dirty brute, we always 
dressed while aboard the boat in the blue-jean cos- 
tume worn by mechanics. This proved to be a 
most advantageous practice, for many unantici- 
pated reasons. European ideas of sport do not, 
like ours, approve the wearing of " hard clothes." 
On the Continent a sportsman is always dressed — 
and usually overdressed — for the part. To a 
Frenchman, particularly, the idea of three gentle- 
men sportsmen doing their own work and dressed 
in the blue dungaree of mechanics would be quite 
incomprehensible. In fact, a gentleman would 
gain no particular esteem in their eyes by merely 
knowing how to do these things, the inference be- 
ing that such work must at one epoch of his life 
have been his calling ; otherwise, how could he have 
learned it? As a result, we were always assumed 
to be three professionals engaged to take the boat 
somewhere for the patron who was doubtless some 
richard Americain. We never undeceived them. 
In consequence, we were always received upon 
terms of friendly equality and the people were 
chatty and communicative, while a small pourboire 
went a very long way. 

61 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Our nationalities also puzzled them. Pomeroy, 
from his pointed beard and perfect French accent, 
was always taken for a Frenchman; Ranney, who 
spoke German as fluently as English and had a 
light mustache and complexion, was usually 
thought to be German. I am sure I don't know 
what they took me for; a " Scandahoovian," per- 
haps, and no doubt they thought that I was a sort 
of under servant of the other two, being rather 
careless in my costume and usually bareheaded. 

While lying in the basin at Havre a Frenchman 
came over and asked me where we had come from. 
When I said " London " he looked skeptical. 

" Ah ! You brought her on a steamer," said he. 

" No," said I, " we brought her on the water. 
Why not? She is a boat, not an automobile." 

" But you have no sails ! What if the motor 
should not march? " 

" It has to march," said I. " It is against the 
rules for it to stop." 

He shrugged. " But I suppose," said he, " that 
you are very well paid for it. For me, I should 
want a good deal of money to cross the Manchi 
in such a canot automobile ! " 

Sometimes we were found out. Later, in the 
French canals Pomeroy had an amusing experi- 

62 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

ence. It was at the junction of two different canal 
systems, and he was asked by the lock keeper to 
accompany him to the office of the superintendent 
and show his papers. Pomeroy was at the time 




A lock keeper. 

dressed as a neat, self-respecting mecanicien, and 
the lock keeper's manner was the least bit patroniz- 
ing. They reached the office and the superintend- 
ent glanced first at the papers, then at Pomeroy. 
" Pray be seated, monsieur," said he, politely. 

63 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Pomeroy thanked him and sat down. The lock 
keeper stared at the superintendent with an expres- 
sion of astonished disgust. That this great man, 
the chief of the whole canal, should invite a work- 
man to take one of his own chairs was most as- 
tounding ! 

The superintendent examined the papers, then 
suddenly paused, took out his cigarette case and 
offered it to Pomeroy. Pomeroy took a cigarette. 
The lock keeper's eyes opened wider, his mouth as 
well. Pomeroy took out his own cigarette case and 
offered it to the superintendent. 

" Perhaps you would like to smoke an Egyptian 
cigarette," said he. 

The superintendent took one, thanked him, lit a 
match, offered it to Pomeroy, then lit his own 
cigarette and proceeded with his examination of 
the papers. The lock keeper leaned against the 
wall for support. The superintendent counter- 
signed the papers and returned them with a smile 
to Pomeroy. 

" You are Mr. Pomeroy? " he asked. 

Pomeroy admitted it, observing that the super- 
intendent had penetrated his disguise. 

" Naturally, such a costume is much more con- 
venient, " said the superintendent, " but I have yet 

6 4 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

to see a mecanicien who wears jeweled rings while 
on duty, who uses the same forms of expression 
which you have employed, or who offers one Egyp- 
tian cigarettes from a gold case marked with his 
coat of arms ! " 

But there was never a more disgusted lock keeper 
on a French canal ! 

One must be careful to choose the right condi- 
tions of tide for ascending the lower part of the 
Seine, as there is a very dangerous bore or tidal 
wave, known as the mascaret, which has brought 
many a small vessel and some large ones to grief. 
This mascaret is caused by the first of the flood tide 
sweeping up the estuary and being then funneled 
down as the river narrows, where it meets the com- 
bined rush of the ebb tide and the river current. 
The result, during the periods of very high tides, 
is a wave across the river some four or five feet in 
height in the middle, but mounting in the shallows 
near either bank to a height of twenty or thirty 
feet. It travels at a speed of thirty-five to forty 
kilometers an hour, and is followed at intervals of 
a few hundred yards by three other waves. It is 
felt very strongly as high up as Duclair, fifty-four 
miles from the mouth, and then gradually dies 
away. At Rouen, seventy-six miles from the 

65 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

mouth, I noticed it as a slight ripple in the water 
only a few centimeters higher than the level be- 
fore it. 

Were a boat, even of considerable size, to be 
caught by the mascaret over the shallow water it 
could not possibly escape destruction, and there is 
a case on record of a tramp steamer which was 
wrecked, some of her crew being drowned. The 
mascaret never need take one unprepared, how- 
ever, as the roar with which it advances is like 
that of Niagara. Some sailing directions we had 
aboard advised one caught by the approaching 
mascaret to make for deep water and then let go 
an anchor, paying out cable as the wave met the 
bow of the boat. They did not explain how one 
was going to lie at anchor with the boat's head 
toward the mascaret in a swift ebb tide! It 
sounded to me as if the person who wrote it had 
studied out the problem over a Pernod in some 
cafe. If we had encountered the mascaret we 
would have taken the middle of the river and 
headed slowly into it, under way, or if disabled, 
taken it as the junks do in the Yangtse Kiang, tail- 
to, and trusted to the stern and side curtains to act 
as weather clothes and keep out the wet ! 

The following morning we passed through the 
66 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

Tancarville Canal, and on coming out into the Seine 
found that we had under us the last of the flood, 
which we carried well up beyond Caudebec. Be- 
fore we had proceeded far we heard suddenly 
ahead of us the rattling exhaust of a rapidly run- 



v**;!., 


~\ 


.■<'<"-'"" 




/.* 




'/ ,-' 


-■ -~^ 


/V 




y 




i 




~H 




\ 




i 


\ 


V ^ 


\ 


JK, - 




■li^iiii^iiii 






rushing object shot ahead.' ' 



ning motor, and the next instant a small, rushing 
object shot around a bend ahead, and, in two great 
wings of flying water came tearing down at us. 

" The Paris a la mer Racel" said Pomeroy. 

We knew of this race but had forgotten it. Giv- 
ing the Beaver a sheer toward the bank we slowed 
our speed to make as little wash as possible for the 
6 67 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

small flyer, which shot past close aboard, her two 
occupants waving to us. Close on her heels came 
another, then two more almost abreast. A few min- 
utes later we passed one of the little gliding boats, 
and although we slowed down she looked as if she 
were " hitting only the high places " when she met 
the Beaver's swell; in fact, her crew of two ap- 
peared to have all that they could do to hang on 
as she squattered from one wave to the next. For 
an hour or two we were kept busy dodging the 
racers; then came a stream of cripples, and one of 
my companions said, unkindly : 

" That's your class, Dan, you brute ! " But that 
sort of talk was good for Dan; it made him am- 
bitious. 

Several yachts and small steamers were follow- 
ing up the race, and their passengers looked curi- 
ously at our American ensign. The farther inland 
we got the more curiosity this and the Beaver her- 
self excited, her seagoing type being so entirely dif- 
ferent from that of the long, slim, shallow, lightly 
built power boats of inland waters with their 
square cabin houses and dainty lace curtains screen- 
ing the large, plate-glass windows. We were some- 
times asked why we had such small, round windows 
in the cabin, and why the latter was built so low. 

68 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

It was impossible for these inlanders, many of 
whom had never seen the sea, to picture in their 
minds a wave which would sweep clean over the 
boat's high bows. 

We had hoped to get into Rouen early in the 
afternoon, but the tide turned a little above Caude- 
bec, and we made poor progress. The motor also 
appeared to be running badly, working so heavily 
that it led me to think the propeller might be 
fouled. At the same time the resoldered fuel pipe 
began to leak again, and finally, as we were mak- 
ing such poor progress, we decided to stop the 
motor, drop our kedge anchor, and give things an 
overhauling. I went overboard, and on examining 
the propeller discovered a twisted rope of grass 
wound so tightly around the boss, and jammed in 
between the boss and tail shaft, that I was unable 
to budge it with my hands alone and had to get 
a sharp knife to saw it through. No wonder Dan 
had been working overtime ! But when Dan really 
chose to work it took more than a bale of hay to 
stop him! 

We served the fuel pipe with some surgeon's 
plaster reenforced with copper wire and then, as 
the tide was running out so fast that we saw no 
hope of reaching Rouen before dark, decided to 

6 9 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

wait for the flood and save fuel. By this time we 
were well above the influence of the mascaret, but 
even as high as Rouen the flood tide arrives at a 
few centimeters higher level than the water it 
meets, which on encountering it turns immediately 
and runs the other way. There is no " slack wa- 
ter " interval. 

Taking the young flood we started up the river. 
The darkness came presently, but Rouen is a port 
of entry for big steamers, and although the river 
is tortuous the channel is fairly wide and well 
lighted. Laying our courses from light to light 
we made good time, reaching Rouen at about mid- 
night. As the Beaver belonged to the Touring 
Club of France, we hunted up the club's landing 
and tied up there for the night. 

The following morning we were met by some 
ladies, members of Mr. Pomeroy's family, and a 
friend who had come down to join us for the trip 
up to Paris. Wishing to readjust the fuel pump 
and make a few other necessary adjustments about 
the motor, I remained in my mecanicien clothes 
and, being still at work, was unable to go up to the 
hotel for dejeuner. Presently a waiter came down 
to the boat, bringing me a bottle of wine and some 
sandwiches which the others had sent me ; then he 

70 



■ . ■■•*' If 




Rouen. 



hung about asking silly questions until, being a bit 
warm from my efforts, I frightened him away. Be- 
fore long a bystander kindly informed me that my 
patron was coming, and after a delay in taking fuel 
we started up the river. Pomeroy presently tired 
of being a swell, and so in time did Ranney. Both 
retired to the cabin to reappear presently as mem- 
bers of the equipage, much to the delight of the 
ladies, one of whom, being accustomed to driving 
an automobile, very quickly acquired complete mas- 
tery of the Beaver, even to the going in and out of 
locks and bringing the boat gently alongside. So 
the unusual spectacle presented to the astonished 

7i 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

river population was that of a large seagoing motor 
boat flying the American flag, piloted by a young 
lady, and manned by two rather stylish and one 
very disreputable mecaniciens. Pomeroy, present- 
ing the ship's papers and interviewing the lock 
keepers, was regarded as commandant ; Ranney, in 
a very pretty guernsey, a crimson neckerchief, and 
new suit of blue dungarees which he had brought 
to an aesthetic shade of color pleasing to his eye by 
repeated soakings and wringing out, handled the 
stern warp as gracefully as might the chorus of 
" Pinafore," occasionally reprimanding Pomeroy or 
myself for some thoughtless negligence on our part. 
The two were very much admired; they were so 
pretty. But for me, stoker and matelot quelconque, 
in a blue flannel shirt and a pair of nameless nether 
garments, there was no admiration at all ; only awe 
for the terrors of my calling. When the blast lamps 
began to roar into the hoods of the ignition cham- 
bers a flutter passed through the crowd, and the 
timid ones withdrew from proximity; but when I 
cranked Dan and he started off with the roar of 
a racing car there would be a sudden rear march. 
I soon learned how to fire salutes out of the stern 
exhaust at will. This could be done by releasing 
the clutch, throwing the throttle wide and closing 

72 




" The Seine from Rouen to Maisons Lafitte is charmingly 
picturesque." 

it sharply again. The result was that the over- 
charge hung fire until well along the exhaust and 
then fired out astern with the report of a four-inch 
gun. The effect upon the population was very 
interesting : those near by ran from, and those at a 

73 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

distance toward the boat, so that there were two 
streams of traffic moving rapidly in opposite direc- 
tions. 

We were three days in going up to Paris. Dan 
was on his good behavior, but the river was so 
charming that we took it by easy stages, stopping 
for lunch in some picturesque little hamlet where 
we were served with delicious omelets and pouiet 
roti and salad, in a fresh little bower under trel- 
lises covered with ivy or grape. Knowing all of 
the more attractive places along the river, we would 
arrange our day's run as in automobiling, so as to 
stop for the night at some quaint, interesting place 
where there was a good hotel; no difficult task in 
France. 

The Seine from Rouen to Maisons Lafitte is 
charmingly picturesque ; there is no perceptible cur- 
rent as the river is " canalized." The locks are far 
apart and one passes through them very quickly, 
there being special locks for yachts and small ves- 
sels. The Seine itself winds in a serpentine course 
through a lovely, undulating country which is park- 
like in its picturesque order and freedom from in- 
artistic elements, such as factories or squalid towns 
and villages. There are model farms with well- 
kept fields, stretches of forest here and there, 

74 



BOULOGNE TO PARIS 

stately chateaux, thrusting their Gothic towers 
above the treetops, and beautifully kept estates 
sloping down to the river, with charming villas 
tucked away and seen in swift vistas through the 
intervening green. Sometimes the walls and ruined 
towers of some fortress rise gauntly from the sum- 
mit of a hill commanding the surrounding coun- 



Mantes, as we came up the river. 

try; at Les Andelys one enjoys from the river the 
most imposing view to be had of the ruins of 
Chateau Gaillard, which was built in a single year 
by Richard Coeur de Lion. 

At Vernon we discovered the wire cable of our 
steering gear to be so badly chafed as to make it 
dangerous, and as both tiller lines had been renewed 
since leaving London, it was evident that wire cable 
would not be practicable for the purpose. That 

75 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

which we had was the same used for automobile 
hand brakes, but it was obliged to pass through too 
many leads before reaching the steering wheel. It 
seemed to me that ratline stuff would be much bet- 
ter, as the strain of steering was comparatively- 
slight, the difficulty with the wire being the con- 
stant bending and straightening, but as we were 
unable to get ratline stuff I spliced a piece of manila 
into the wire to take us to Paris. 

On arriving at Paris, or more properly Puteaux, 
we lay at the float of the Isle de Puteaux Tennis 
and Rowing Club, of which Ranney was a member. 

Here, although Dan was by this time working 
soberly and conscientiously, we judged it wise to 
have him thoroughly overhauled by an expert, and 
as Linton Hope and Company, our builders, had 
given us credit on the Paris agents of the motor, 
we had expert advice and treatment. Three days 
later, tuned to the fighting pitch and having thor- 
oughly found himself, Dan was ready for his long 
climb over the hills of eastern France and down 
again into the valley of the Rhine. 




CHAPTER V 

LOCKS AND CANALS 

g|N the first day of August, just six 
weeks behind our schedule as planned, 
we sailed from Puteaux and pro- 
ceeded up the river, having with us 
for the run up through the city of 
Paris two of Mr. Pomeroy's family and the expert 
adjuster, who, as a matter of fact, had found prac- 
tically nothing to do to the motor. At the Suresnes 
lock the keeper told us that the Paris-St. Germain 
passenger steamer La Touriste was due, and asked 
us to wait a few minutes as the steamer had the right 
of way. Dan always hated waiting, and I, as en- 
gineer, hated to have him do so ; if I stopped him 
it was necessary to start the lamps, and if I turned 
him over slowly he would cool down sufficiently to 
lose all interest in his work, and would usually 
start off again firing unevenly. In the locks we 
usually left the clutch in and let him tug away at 
the stern warp, but in the present instance, as there 
was no good place conveniently at hand to tie up 

77 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

to, we kept under way, maneuvering about, going 
ahead and astern and marking time while waiting 
for La Touriste to lock through. 

Unfortunately, we had been unable to get the 
proper stuff for our steering lines in Paris, and as 
the splice which I had put in at Vernon appeared 
to be in good condition and the wire, though 
slightly frayed out where it ran through the leads, 
still serviceable, I had not put in a new line. Just 
as La Touriste was about to come out of the lock, 
somebody aboard the Beaver dropped one of our 
fenders overboard. As we were moving ahead at 
the time it had slipped astern before anybody could 
grab up the hook and catch it, so in order to secure 
it as quickly as possible and slip into the lock before 
some of the other boats which were waiting should 
preempt our berth, I reversed quickly and backed 
down on the fender. With good sternway the 
Beaver would steer very nicely, but the strain of 
water on the rudder as the sternway increased 
proved too much for the chafed wire cable tiller 
line which parted just above the spot where I had 
spliced the rope into it. The next instant the rope 
itself, which was fast at its forward end to the 
chain which ran over the sprocket of the steering 
wheel, dropped down into the shaft pit and like a 

78 



LOCKS AND CANALS 

flash was whipped around the rapidly revolving 
shaft. The sudden strain snapped the wire cable 
on the port side, the heavy chain followed the rope 
and was partly wound around the shaft, while the 
free end was whipping around beneath the wheel 




At the clubhouse landing, Isle de Puteaux. 

and threatening to amputate the foot of anyone 
within reach. 

Of course, the wheel was useless, and I did not 
know what would happen if the chain should jam, 
but we were charging astern and under the bows of 
La Touriste, which was coming rapidly out of the 
lock, so that I did not dare throw out the clutch 
until I had turned the propeller wheel ahead, 

79 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

checked the boat's way and got her in a position of 
safety. Then I stopped the motor, and we man- 
aged to disentangle the chain and get into the lock, 
steering by the tiller. 

It was very annoying to be compelled to go up 
through the city of Paris in man-o'-war launch 
fashion, one hand steering from the stern while 
another ran the engine, especially as steering a 
heavy boat like the Beaver with a short iron tiller 
was no lady's pastime, but we were anxious to get 
to Lagny that evening and it was already early 
afternoon. So we made the best of it. 

At the octroi station, just below the Pont du 
jour, an officer, who from his uniform looked as 
if he must be at least a rear admiral, signaled us 
to stop while he came alongside. The current was 
swift, and there was a boat coming down ahead 
and another going up astern and the handling of the 
Beaver was awkward owing to the disabled steer- 
ing gear, but there we had to wait until his Excel- 
lency came alongside. I opened Dan up and he 
roared in a way that made it impossible to hear a 
word said, but nothing could so convey the impres- 
sion of frantic impatience as Dan, if properly tor- 
mented, and that was the idea which I wanted him 
to express. The octroi man looked at him askance, 

80 



LOCKS AND CANALS 

and while still at a distance began to ask if we had 
any chickens or pre-salc lamb and I don't know 
what. At least, that's what he probably said; no 
one could hear what he really said. But everybody 
shouted " Non ! " to everything that he said, and 
they answered as if they meant it. Then Dan be- 
gan to make sounds which took all desire to board 
us from the man's bewildered mind, and he made 
a despairing signal which may have meant for us 
to go up the Seine or down somewhere else. We 
chose the Seine, and started off with a royal salute 
and much churning of water under the stern. 

We pushed on upstream, past the Eifel Tower 
and the Trocadero and the Louvre and Notre 
Dame. At Ivry we landed our mecanicien and at 
St. Maur left the Seine and, passing through a tun- 
nel six hundred meters in length, came out at Join- 
ville le Pont, on the Marne. 

At Lagny we partook of a farewell dinner with 
our guests who bade us " bon voyage " and re- 
turned to Paris by rail, and we went back aboard 
the boat in a sad and thoughtful frame of mind, 
to meditate upon the big Continent which must be 
traversed before the Beaver's nose should be turned 
toward home again. 

From Lagny, which is only about twenty kilo- 
81 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

meters from Paris, our course lay across France in 
an easterly direction to the German frontier, thence 
through Alsace-Lorraine to Strassburg, where we 
were to enter the Rhine. 

Up to this point we had been in fairly open wa- 
ter, the Thames, the English Channel, the Seine; 
all navigable for seagoing vessels, but at Lagny 
the " mud-holing " began which was to continue 
for about three hundred and fifty miles until we 
struck the Rhine. 

Looking back upon this part of our voyage we 
feel extremely glad to have experienced it, but I 
do not think that any of us would care to attempt 
anything of the sort again. As far as actual 
progress is concerned, one may form an idea of the 
tediousness of this variety of travel by a glance at 
the schedule of our itinerary on page 84, which 
explains itself. 

Some years ago I took a thirty-foot boat from 
Greenwich, Conn., to the Dismal Swamp, Vir- 
ginia, by the inside passage. After this trip I 
thought that I had seen something of canals and 
locks, although as I recall it there were only about 
sixty or seventy miles of the former and about a 
dozen or so of the latter. Compare this with the 
two hundred and five locks between Paris and 

82 




Through stately avenues of grand old trees.' : 



83 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Day's runs of the Beaver from Paris to Strassburg, 
via the Marne River and the Marne-au-Rhin Canal. 



Date 


From 


To 


Kilome- 
ters 


Locks 


Aug. I 


Paris (Puteaux) 


Lagny 


50 


3 


2 


Lagny 


Charly 


85 


8 


3 


Charly 


Epernay 


68 


8 


4 


Epernay 


Ablancourt 


48 


9 


5 


Ablancourt 


Contrisson 


40 


16 


6 


Contrisson 


Longeville 


23 


24 


7 


Longeville 


Naix les Forges 


19 


19 


8 


Naix les Forges 


Mauvages 


22 


H 


9 


Mauvages 


Foug 


30 


14 


10 


Foug 


Toul 


9 


11 


ii 


Toul 


Nancy 


33 


5 


12 


Nancy 


Parroy 


38 


11 


13 


Parroy 


St. Blasien 


18 


9 


14 


St. Blasien 


Arzweiler 


34 


11 


15 


Arzweiler 


Hochfelden 


34 


32 


16 


Hochfelden 


Strassburg 


25 


11 



Total, 16 days from Paris to Strassburg. 576 kil. (360 
miles) 205 locks. 

Strassburg and figure also on tunnels, bridges, and 
so thick a stream of traffic that we would often find 
five or six canal boats waiting to lock through, and 
one will understand the objection to this form of 
travel if one is in a hurry. Between Paris and 
Strassburg the locks are single, and the boats are 
built to fit them as a boottree fits a boot, with the 

84 




85 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

result that it may take fifteen or twenty minutes 
to lock a boat through. Thanks to the canal au- 
thorities we had the power of trematage, or right 
of way, otherwise we might never have got out of 
that canal! 

But no words can describe the picturesque and 
ever-changing beauty of the entire route ! No road 
nor bypath which we had ever seen in France could 
compare with the intimate charm of this winding 
water way. It creeps through wooded valleys, 
skirts the edges of wild, bracken-covered hills 
where one may look for miles across the interven- 
ing country and see the mountains, blue with dis- 
tance. At times the canal will lead for the entire 
day through stately avenues of grand old trees 
whose interlacing foliage screens the heat of the 
midsummer sun. Often, from some high slope one 
may look down into a verdant valley where a broad 
river winds away through forest-covered hills with 
here and there the Gothic towers of a stately cha- 
teau or the ruined ones of some mediaeval fortress 
thrust up above the luscious foliage. There are 
such views to be had and others more pastoral of 
the valleys of the Marne and the Meuse and the 
Moselle. The two latter are crossed by the canal 
on high stone bridges similar to those built for a 

86 



LOCKS AND CANALS 

railroad. Also, there are tunnels where the canal 
bores through the heart of hill and mountain. The 
longest of these is at Mauvages, the crest of the 
divide between the valleys of the Marne and the 
Moselle, and is five kilometers in length. 

The canal water is fresh and clean and limpid, 
spring-fed from the banks, receiving tributary 
streams, and high up in the Vosges it is reenforced 
from a pumping station, as the traffic is heavy and 
a lockful of water is lost with every passing boat. 
The descent of this water creates a current through- 
out and keeps the canal free of scum and debris. 

Most interesting of all are the quaint experi- 
ences which come to one during this sort of a jour- 
ney. In our mecanicien costumes of blue dungaree 
we were invariably accepted as three professionals 
engaged to transport the boat to the Rhine for 
some richard Americain. As the result, we were 
received by the canal folk upon terms of friendly 
equality, and many a long and interesting chat we 
had with them. There are very distinct social 
grades among those who follow the canals as a 
profession ; a society which ranges all the way from 
the patron of the beautiful and stately peniche or 
full-sized barge to the poor and humble equipage 
of the dingy, dirty little montluqon, a scow some- 

87 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

what resembling a Filipino casco and of which the 
motive power is a team composed of a bedraggled 
under-fed donkey and the bedraggled, under-fed 
wife of the patron, hitched tandem, the donkey 
leading, while the lord and master lounges across 
the tiller and smokes his pipe. This sort of an 
outfit is regarded like the pariah of the East. The 
whole family lives in a little shack in the stern of 
the scow. There are very few of this sort. 

But the household of the handsome peniche is 
a very different matter. In America, whether 
rightly or wrongly, canal folk are regarded as 
rather rough citizens ; in France their respectability 
is unquestioned, and their social caste appears to 
be that of the prosperous farmer. We found them 
invariably kind, courteous, intelligent, and self-re- 
specting. The little cottages on their big boats 
were models of cleanliness and comfort, always 
freshly painted, with lace curtains in the windows 
and usually having flower boxes and plants on the 
little piazzas. The wives were strong, wholesome- 
looking women who could steer the boat into a lock 
or catch a turn with a wire hawser and then go 
back to the oven again. The children seemed very 
well cared for. 

At the quaint little inns along the bank which 
88 



LOCKS AND CANALS 

cater to these people, and where we have eaten 
many a good dinner, we often found a group of 
these canal mariniers playing dominoes or billiards 
or sipping absinthe with their friends, but never 



A fair e cluster e. 

once did we see any roughness of conduct or hear 
any bad talk. Sometimes in the day's work we 
would do them a good turn, giving a man a lift to 
his boat a few kilometers farther on or perhaps 
putting the Beaver's nose against a barge and shov- 
ing it into position, and often they did us one, let- 

8 9 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

ting us tie up alongside for the night and using 
their boat as a landing stage. 

After leaving Lagny we pushed on up the 
Marne against a current of perhaps three miles an 
hour, varying with the character of the stream. 
The Marne water is beautifully clear; one could 
see the bottom everywhere. It is also full of fish 
and appears to remain so with very little restock- 
ing despite the fact that there are fishing parties 
every hundred feet in the vicinity of the villages, 
and I do not think that we were ever on any part 
of the river where there were not several anglers 
in sight. Fishing is without doubt the national 
sport of France. Never in any part of the world 
have I seen such perseverance or enthusiasm shown 
for angling by all classes of society. One has only 
to walk along the banks of the Seine in Paris to 
appreciate this; rain or shine, winter or summer, 
in scorching heat or driving snow, there is always 
a battalion of the much-respected army of anglers. 
In Paris they are a pathetic guild because they 
scarcely ever catch anything, and when they do it 
is not more than three inches long, and being 
whipped up at the end of a long bamboo pole has 
usually to be plucked out of the top branches of a 
tree. 

90 




" The intimate charm of this water way 



91 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

But anywhere along the river let a really good- 
sized fish be caught, and the day's work is over. 
The pecheur cannot wait a minute to exhibit his 
catch. Wrapping the prize carefully in a sheet 
torn from he Matin, on which he has been sitting, 
he places it in his inside pocket, carefully buttons 
his coat and departs hotfoot for the nearest cafe. 
There, no matter whether he is known or not, the 
fish is put on exhibition, and the whole story of the 
capture is related to the accompaniment of many 
ma fois and sapristis from the interesting and ad- 
miring audience. 

Pomeroy was returning to the boat one day 
when a young girl, stammering with excitement, 
rushed up to him and cried : 

" O M'sieu, will you have the kindness to assist 
at the capture of a very large fish ? " 

Pomeroy hastened toward the river while the 
girl sped on after further reinforcements. Down 
on the bank was a pecheur, capering up and down 
and yelling. His pole was bent double, and out in 
the stream the line was cutting the water in big 
circles, but although fully equipped with all that 
was needed to land the fish he was so excited that 
he could only prance up and down and howl. By 
the time his fellow-townsfolk had arrived the fish 

92 



LOCKS AND CANALS 

was about done for, and the fisherman, realizing 
the fact that he had arrived at a crisis in his life, 
pulled himself together and managed to land a 
good-sized pike. 

At Charly I viewed the scene of a disaster which 
had befallen me in March. Ranney and I had 
taken Pomeroy's canvas canoe up to Epernay by 
rail and thence paddled back to Paris, a five days' 
trip. The river was high and very swift in places, 
and at Charly lock I tried to run the rapids. Ran- 
ney, not caring for the temperature of the water, 
got out on the bank with the camera to get some 
views of my last moments. He nearly succeeded, 
as a back eddy whipped the canoe almost under the 
fall, but getting clear by hard paddling I had shot 
well through the rapids when for some reason 
which I never quite understood I got spilled out. 
It was very fresh in the water, and after swimming 
to the bank with the canoe I saw Ranney's hat 
spinning off downstream and had to swim after 
that. 




CHAPTER VI 

THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

|HAT night we spent at Charly, and in 
the morning on starting had a little 
more trouble with Dan. Altogether, 
this was a vexing day. I have before 
me Pomeroy's log book, battered and 
semipulpified from a soaking in the Black Sea. 
Under the printed headings of " Courses," 
" Winds," " Sea Swell," " Barometer," and so on, 
I find the following which I am tempted to quote 
verbatim, although conscious that to publish any 
part of this record is a breach of trust which risks 
a valued friendship. 

" August 3d. Warm and cloudy. Repacked 
head of fore cylinder. Started. Fore engine miss- 
ing. Forgot coat (Hank's) on dock. Returned. 
Cleared quicker. O. K. Hit blades of screw in 
Damery lock. Abe whitens his shoes and Hank 
still without soap. Hank finds his shoes in his own 
locker with typewriter. Walked over to Epernay, 
two kilometers, and dined at Hotel de l'Europe. 

94 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

Slept well after walk back under stars carrying our 
lunch for to-morrow, mostly wine. Had a strong 
current against us all day in the Marne." 

Under " Remarks " it says: 

11 3-°5i cleared Vandiere lock. Going in fair — 
lead of tiller line carried away and we put her nose 
into the bank." 

I trust that nobody will be so mean as to try to 
trace any connection between the above entries and 
the fact that they all happened at Epernay, which 
is the center of the champagne country ! Hitting 
the propeller blades was my work. Damery lock 
had sloping walls pitched in at an angle of forty- 
five degrees. In starting the motor to go out, the 
stern swung too far in and wiped the rims of the 
blades, scoring them badly. I did not get over this 
for several days when I did it again! Long be- 
fore we reached the Black Sea, however, this had 
become of so frequent occurrence as no longer to 
arouse any emotion. 

Let no one imagine that this canal navigation is 
a pastime adapted to children and invalids. Where 
the traffic is as heavy as on the Marne-au-Rhin 
Canal it would be very easy to lose your boat. One 
is constantly dodging in and out between big, heav- 
ily loaded barges carrying stone and coal and wine 

95 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

and railroad iron, the mere drift of which as they 
come together would flatten a boat like the Beaver 
should she happen to get nipped between. There 
are many dangers of this sort. There are the big 
" empties " to avoid, as being light and drawing 
only six or eight inches they travel fast, are impos- 
sible to steer, and in a stiff breeze take up the whole 
canal. There is the danger of parting a line from 
the rush of water when the lock is filling, and being 
dashed against the sides or end, and there is a dan- 
ger which sounds absurd but is quite actual; that 
is in miscalculating the relative time taken for a 
swinging bridge to open toward you and that of 
your approach. Then there is the constant danger 
to the screw from the inward slant of the stone fac- 
ing of the canal bank. 

Altogether the work needs constant vigilance 
and something of the qualities of a chauffeur, espe- 
cially when racing past a long line of boats to get 
into a lock with another line coming from the op- 
posite direction. One may ask: " But why take 
such chances? " The answer is: " Because if you 
do not you are apt to get frozen in when the winter 
comes." 

In the extract from Pomeroy's log book the ac- 
cident to the steering gear is mentioned. On this 

96 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

occasion it was amusing; that is, to Pomeroy and 
myself. We were at the time " standing off and 
on " in a little canal " port," waiting to go into a 
lock. This " port " or basin was perhaps fifty 
meters in diameter, the lock opening directly into 
it. Pomeroy and I were sitting up forward admir- 
ing the evolutions of Ranney, who was having his 
hands full to keep the boat in position against the 
rush of the water coming down as the lock was 
emptied. He was not asking any help, thank you, 
but he was very much occupied, as we could tell 
from the row Dan was raising and the thrash of 
the propeller as he forged ahead or went astern. 
At this time he had not handled the boat a great 
deal in restricted waters, and presently Pomeroy 
said: 

" Perhaps you had better take her." 
" No," said I. " The propeller blades are 
enough damage to my account for one day. Let 
him alone. He is doing well and learning fast. 
Don't say a word. If he biffs the lock, pretend 
that you do not notice it, and try to pretend it bet- 
ter than you did when I hit the blades! " 

We sat quite still. As the last of the water came 
out and the gates began to open, the current swung 
the boat's head off to port. Ranney put his helm 

97 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

astarboard and backed out, a very proper maneu- 
ver. He got well clear of the bank, and then to 
swing the bow sharply back into the right position 
for entering he went " full ahead," at the same 
time porting his helm. 

The theory was correct, but the bow failed to 
swing. To Pomeroy and me it looked as if Ran- 
ney was tired of waiting for the lock to open and 
had decided to get a good start and go across lots. 

" We're going to hit! " said Pomeroy. 

" Don't say a word," said I. " Don't even look 
around; just keep on talking as if nothing had hap- 
pened." 

The Beaver charged into the bank and started 
to climb up. We did not move, but kept on talk- 
ing as if unconscious of anything unusual. No 
sound from Ranney, who was expectantly waiting 
some comment. Presently we glanced about indif- 
ferently, and there stood Ranney with an expres- 
sion of the most impatient pugnacity. We looked 
away. 

" I suppose you think that I'm a d fool? " 

he asked, in an injured tone. 

" Not at all. Why do you ask? " 

Ranney looked disgusted. " Well," he growled, 
" when I put the wheel over your blooming steer- 

9 8 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

ing gear busted, and before I could find out what 
was the matter, she bumped! " 

Day after day we climbed tediously up the long 
flight of stairs leading to the highlands between 
Meuse and Meurthe-et-Moselle. At Chalons-sur- 
Marne we skirted the Catalaunian Fields, where in 
45 1 B.C. the great army of the Huns was defeated 
by the Romans and their allies the Franks and 
Visigoths. 

Sometimes the canal became so choked with traf- 
fic that it did not seem to us as if we should ever 
get out into open water again. Glancing at the 
table on page 84, one sees a day when we made 
but nine kilometers and passed through only eleven 
locks! Another day shows thirty-four kilometers 
and thirty-two locks, all depending on the traffic 
and the duration of the " waits." If we had not 
been a month behind our schedule and could have 
possessed our souls in peace it would not have been 
so bad, but with visions of the water in the river 
Maine dropping day by day, and also of arriving 
at Sulina and embarking upon the Black Sea, so 
named for its evil reputation, after the change of 
seasons, these delays were simply maddening. 
Pomeroy alone accepted the situation placidly, as 
is evidenced by this naive extract from his log : 
8 99 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" Wednesday, August 7th. — Morning fair but 
cloudy. At lock twenty-nine filled our water cask 
from a spring by lock — kind old lady lent us a 
bucket. On leaving she presented us with a nose- 
gay from her garden, simple, old-fashioned flow- 
ers. Hank will never get any soap I'm sure. Tie 
up at No. 15 at the wood wharf. Abe has his 
clothes washed. Lock keeper's two daughters very 
pretty. Mother fat, but a sweet smile. . . . Very 
cold toward morning." 

We crossed the valley of the Meuse on a high 
canal bridge, and it was rather an odd sensation to 
look from the deck of one's boat into the river be- 
neath. At last, upon the eighth day " outward," 
or to be more accurate, " inward bound " from 
Paris, we found ourselves at the top of the divide 
between the Marne and the Moselle one thousand 
feet above sea level. Here is another extract from 
the log: 

" Thursday, August 8th. — Beautiful morning, 
clear and cold. Mist over water. Numbers of 
boats bound east all through the night, hurrying 
to get to the tunnel (La Voute) of Mauvages in 
time to go through at seven. Passed five east- 
bound boats between 14 and 15. This very graen 
valley of the Ormain gets more beautiful as we go 

100 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

up. The canal is on the side of the hill, and the 
river bottom is always below us. Hank's famous 
grass hitch is often used. Hank still on the soap 
borrow and Abe diligent with his white shoes — has 
two pairs and works 'em watch and watch. After 
getting permission to go through tunnel under our 
own power took Beaver to entrance of tunnel and 
walked back to No. i for dinner." 

The " famous grass hitch " consisted of taking 
a handful of the long tough marsh grass which 
fringed the bank and catching a clove hitch with 
it around one of the awning stanchions, thereby 
obviating the necessity of taking a line ashore when 
compelled to tie up and wait. 

At Mauvages we were confronted by a tunnel 
through the mountain, five kilometers long (over 
three miles) and unlighted. There is a chain 
boat which tows the waiting barges through, 
making a daily passage in either direction. The 
speed of this train is about a kilometer an hour! 
We had been told that we should have to tow 
through behind this line as boats were not per- 
mitted to go through under their own power 
for fear of the fumes which they left in the 
tunnel. On some former occasion it appears 
that a small steamer left fumes which caused 

IOI 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the asphyxiation and death of two persons on the 
towing flotilla. 

Spending nearly five hours in such a black, de- 
pressing hole was such a cheerless prospect that 
Pomeroy hunted up the superintendent, and by the 
charm of his personality and his insidious blandish- 
ments obtained permission for us to go through 
alone that night after the arrival of the tow from 
the other side. We were instructed to go to the 
mouth of the tunnel and to wait there until the tow 
emerged, then to proceed through, slowly and care- 
fully, taking great care not to leave any fumes in 
transit. Accordingly, we got under way, and pro- 
ceeding through a deep, winding defile between 
steep, rugged hills, came presently to where the 
black mouth of the tunnel opened before us like the 
entrance of the Styx in its course to the Infernal 
Regions. Here we moored to the stone facing of 
the canal and waited. 

This place is weirdly striking ; a deep amphithea- 
ter between precipitous, fern-covered slopes which 
higher up are wooded with beech and chestnut. A 
curve in the canal closes the entrance, while at the 
other end the black arch of the tunnel is built in 
a great wall of solid masonry. On either side of 
this wall a stone stairway ascends to a terrace 

102 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

above the arch, and from the center of this another 
long stairway leads straight up the hillside and dis- 
appears in the dense foliage above. The floor of 
the big amphitheater is the black water of the 



" The black mouth of the tunnel opened before us like 
the entrance of the Styx." 

canal. Although midsummer and still early in the 
afternoon, the light was deeply subdued, and a 
cold, damp draught of air reeking of mold fanned 
faintly from the tunnel's mouth. Beautiful as the 
place was in an eerie way, it was at the same time 

103 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

depressing from its sad loneliness and absence of 
all sign of human habitation. 

The moment that we stopped the motor a chorus 
of wild, discordant sounds came welling out from 
the heart of the mountain ; deep, rumbling groans, 
undertoning a diapason of clamoring human voices 
which sounded like the distant shrieking of the 
souls of the damned. They died away, then arose 
again in a confused medley which was accompanied 
by the mournful clanking of chains. 

" I thought that this place looked like the gates 
of hell," said somebody, " and now there is no 
longer any doubt of it. Listen to that infernal 
row!" 

The noises seemed to swell out in fresh waves of 
sound with the faint draughts of air wafted from 
the tunnel. We decided that they must come from 
the chain boat and its long train of barges, for al- 
though the line must still have been over a mile 
deep in the mountain, the tunnel itself was a great 
speaking tube and capable of transmitting sound 
for an indefinite distance. When we stood at the 
mouth of the tunnel the noises became louder and 
more defined ; we could distinctly hear the clanking 
of the chain cable as it was reeled in over the drum 
of the towboat, and the human voices were a com- 

104 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

bination of song, conversation, and occasional yells 
from the mariniers, who were perhaps amusing 
themselves after the manner of small boys in the 
tunnel under a causeway. 

As the day waned the place became more and 
more grewsome. Heavy shadows hung in the ra- 
vine, while overhead the sky was still brightly blue. 
The sounds from the tunnel grew gradually louder 
and more discordant. Deep in the gloom lights 
began to spark and the individual voices became in- 
telligible. Finally, when within a few meters of 
the mouth of the tunnel some marinier struck up a 
song; others joined the chorus, which sounded like 
a chant, or paeon of praise and thankfulness at get- 
ting the weight of the mountain off their backs, 
and so singing to the accompaniment of the clank- 
ing chain, they crawled out into the fading day- 
light. 

As it was then after six o'clock we decided to 
dine before going through, and therefore walked 
back to a little auberge in the village, where they 
gave us a very good compot of hare, haricots verts, 
an omelet of bread and cheese, with the wine of 
the country, a petit vin gris, which is a pink, ef- 
fervescent wine, and tastes like sour champagne. 

It was about nine o'clock when we got back to 
105 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the boat, having to walk some distance. Getting 
Dan well heated up we ran him until both cylinders 
were firing completely, so as to leave no fumes in 
our wake; then placing two lanterns forward to 
throw a glare against the walls on either side, we 
started in. It was our intention to proceed slowly 
and carefully, but as I do not care much for tun- 
nels, and happened to be steering, I presently 
turned Dan loose and let him go full speed. In 
spite of her smoke and gas condensers the towboat 
had left fumes enough in the place to make us 
cough, and the air was cold and heavy. Steering 
the boat was also nervous work ; there was nothing 
to head for but a vague, central zone of murk, and 
the pale glare of the lanterns on the sides of the 
wall had a peculiar hypnotizing effect on the eyes, 
making it difficult to focus, while the friction of 
the water between the boat and the tunnel's sides 
dragged with an alternating pull, first on one side, 
then on the other, according to which wall the boat 
was nearer, making it hard to steer a true course. 
About halfway through we got an icy shower from 
a spring which had burst through the roof; appar- 
ently this spot was undergoing repair, as we had 
observed a scaffolding on a barge near the entrance. 
But the most nerve-racking thing of all was the 
106 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

indescribable din made by our motor and thrown 
down in terrific reverberations from the walls. 
Dan was always a noisy beast, but in that tunnel 
his clamor was a thing to burst the tympani and 
tear the nerves out by the roots. I have been 
through five naval engagements and a Strauss con- 
cert, but that racket in the tunnel could have given 
cards and spades to a duet between a boiler factory 
and a rapid-fire gun, and made a Strauss concert 
sound like whispered words of love ! 

None of us received any sense of the lapse of 
time while in the tunnel; it might have been five 
minutes or fifty, and when suddenly the glimmer 
of light disappeared from the walls it gave us a 
dreadful shock. The night was dark, and the lan- 
terns forward so blinded the vision of everything 
ahead that the impression received as we suddenly 
emerged from the tunnel was that of charging 
against a solid black wall. Indeed, I was on the 
point of reversing hard when the feeling of the 
air told me that we had come out. 

From this point we began the descent of the 
long slope down into the valley of the Moselle. 
The feature of this part of the voyage most im- 
pressed upon my memory is that of getting over- 
board in the cold water three or four times a day 

107 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

to clear the grass from the screw. There was also 
some beautiful scenery. 

Not far beyond the Mauvages tunnel we arrived 
at another one which is two kilometers long. Here 
there were two-hour intervals through the day for 
boats coming and going, and as the tunnel was too 
narrow to permit of our turning or even of squeez- 
ing past a boat coming from the opposite direction, 
it behooved us to go through at the right time. 
There were some boats waiting at the mouth, 
bound in the same direction as ourselves, and the 
captain of one of these told us that if we hurried 
we could get through before the time was up. As 
it meant a delay of two hours to wait, we decided 
to take a chance, and accordingly entered. The 
other end was barely visible as a pin prick of light, 
and when we were about halfway through we dis- 
covered that there were moving objects between it 
and ourselves. Pomeroy got his glass on them, 
and announced in some excitement that it was a 
barge coming in our direction, as he could see the 
horses out ahead. 

The situation promised to be very awkward, as 
we could not steer the Beaver backward in such 
narrow quarters. It looked to me as if the boat 
were going in the same direction as ourselves ; even 

108 




Where the canal enters the moat of the city wall at Toul. 



109 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

if she were not, the best way seemed to be to hold 
on our course and bully them into backing out, as 
they were just inside the entrance. As I was run- 
ning the boat at the time I held on ahead in spite 
of the impassioned protests of Pomeroy, who 
finally, convinced that through sheer, pig-headed 
obstinacy I was getting deeper and deeper into the 
mess, grabbed the reversing wheel and stopped us. 
Much pained at this breach of etiquette, I dropped 
the wheel and lit a cigarette. Dan was filling the 
place with his deafening uproar, and, not satisfied 
with the general demoralization, began to miss one 
cylinder. It was dark as pitch, our feeble lantern 
accentuating the gloom. Pomeroy was trying to 
make me hear his argument against the roars of 
Dan ; Ranney was quite indifferent as to what hap- 
pened, and I was sitting in the corner of the cock- 
pit pouting. Far ahead we could see the legs of 
the animals twinkling against the tiny arc of light. 
Suddenly the humor of the thing struck me and 
cheered me up. 

" I will get out and go on ahead," I shouted in 
Pomeroy's ear, " and see which way they are go- 
ing. If you see me wave, come ahead." 

So I got on the towpath and trotted down 
through the mud for half a mile to the end of the 

no 



THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS 

tunnel, and there found two barges going out. 
Their crews were staring astern with their eyes 
sticking out of their heads, and I did not blame 
them, considering the unholy noises proceeding 
from the black depths beyond ! 




"At Toul we crossed the Moselle on a big stone bridge." 



At Toul we crossed the Moselle on a big stone 
bridge with high arches. We did not stop to see 
the old cathedral of St. Etienne, famous for its 
thirteenth-century cloister. There was also an- 
other tunnel, described in the guide book as an 

m 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" ouvrage d'art fort curieux" being five hundred 
meters long. It did not impress us. Toul is very 
heavily garrisoned, and in one place the canal leads 
into and along the moat of the city for a consider- 
able distance. All of the surrounding hills are 
strongly fortified. 

Nancy was our next " port of call," and there 
we spent a day, as this city is interesting and beauti- 
ful. It was the ancient capital of Lorraine, and 
the Place Stanislaus in the center of the town is 
exceedingly striking. Formerly Nancy was famous 
as the seat of the dukes of Lorraine. To-day it is 
famous for embroideries and macaroons. 




MT9 



CHAPTER VII 

INTO GERMANY 

FTER leaving Nancy the canal wan- 
ders off and loses itself in a pretty, 
pastoral country remote from every- 
thing. We fetched up for the night 
at a place called Parroy, a quaint little 
village high up on a hill surrounded by meadows 
which were covered with cows. The following 
morning on awakening I found that Pomeroy had 
been suffering all night from an acute intestinal in- 
digestion, and after abusing him for not having 
called me I attempted to give him some medicine, 
but being half asleep and my fingers stiff and swol- 
len from daily burns and bruises, I cleverly man- 
aged to drop the bottle on the fly wheel, where it 
broke and went to join the interesting mixture in the 
bilge. Pomeroy was feeling too bad to say any- 
thing, so I said it for him. 

" Anyway," said I, " you must have a milk diet, 
so I will go up to the village and get some milk, 
and some more of this stuff at the same time." 

"3 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" You may succeed in getting the dope," said he, 
" but you will not get any milk." 

" Why not? There is nothing here but cows." 

" Just the same," said he, " you will not get any 
milk. I have lived twenty years in France." 

Not wishing to argue with a sick man I got 
dressed and departed. At the top of the hill I 
found the villagers in a state of wild excitement. 
A woman told me that a mad dog (chien enrage) 
had bitten a boy. Everybody was talking at once, 
and arguing over the proper course of treatment. 
I told them to take the boy at once to Nancy, where 
there was, or ought to be, a Pasteur dispensary, 
which they promised to do. Then I asked if they 
had killed the dog, meaning to instruct them to 
send the corpse along with the boy for the purpose 
of diagnosis, but they told me that the dog was 
still at large. 

" Then shoot him at once." 

" That cannot be done, m'sieu', because the 
owner is in Paris." 

" Is it, then, that you do not like the owner, and 
want him to return and be bitten also? " 

" But non, m'sieu', only one does not shoot a 
dog without the consent of the owner." 

" Then," said I, " he will no doubt bite some 
114 



INTO GERMANY 



more boys and the other dogs and perhaps a few 
cows or a goat, and they will all go mad and run 
around biting! " 




"The canal wanders off and loses itself in a pretty pastoral 
country.' ' 

But they appeared to regard this fearful de- 
velopment as in the hands of the bon Dieul 

A woman who told me that she was the mother 
of eleven living children and some dead ones, the 
last of whom was malformed, kindly gave me some 
9 115 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

of the desired drug from her own supply. But 
when I asked for milk she shook her head. 

" You will not be able to get any milk, m'sieu'," 
she said, with decision. 

" But why not? There are a great many cows 
and also some calves. Where this occurs I have 
always found that there is milk." 

" There is milk, m'sieu', but it has all gone to 
the creamery." 

" Nevertheless, I must have some milk. My 
friend is at the point of death. Is it not possible 
to milk one of these cows? " 

She looked aghast. " At seven of the morning, 
m'sieu' ! One does not milk a cow as late as that ! " 

" It has to be done," said I, " if I have to do it 
myself!" 

She shook her head and explained it to some of 
the neighbors, and they all shook their heads. 
Eventually some one referred me to a neighbor 
who was supposed to have a cow without a time 
lock on the milk locker. When I had stated the 
urgency of the case this good woman detailed a 
very pretty and amiable young girl of about twenty 
to go and coax a little milk from the outraged bo- 
vine. I went along with her, to carry the pail. 
Every cloud has its silver lining. The bitten boy 

116 



INTO GERMANY 



got Pasteurized and Pomeroy got his milk, but that 
night I dreamed that the whole countryside was 
full of cows who had gone mad because they could 




"At noon of that day we arrived at the German frontier." 

not be milked, and were running around biting the 
pretty milkmaids. 

At noon of that day we arrived at the German 
frontier. In the morning as we were going through 
a lock the little daughter of the keeper asked us if 

117 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

she and her sister might go with us as far as their 
school, which was three or four kilometers down 
the canal. The permission was of course given 
them, and the two children were greatly delighted 
with their experience. Although living on the bor- 
der of France and Lorraine they did not speak a 
word of French. Later that day a man told me 
that it was against the law to teach French in the 
schools of Alsace-Lorraine. I was surprised to 
hear that this old decision was still enforced; if it 
is indeed true, it certainly seems a very tyrannical 
and unenlightened ruling on the part of so great 
and progressive a nation as the German Empire. 

An impression which one receives in this former 
French province is that France makes a good deal 
more fuss over Alsace-Lorraine than Alsace-Lor- 
raine makes over France ! The type of the people, 
their appearance, manners, characteristics are all 
markedly Teutonic, especially in Alsace, and, in- 
deed, there is no reason why they should not be, 
as this country was German to begin with, before 
its conquest by the Franks. To-day Lorraine is 
considered to be French au fond; no doubt it is, 
among the old French aristocracy who claim not 
to understand the German language and will not 
receive a Prussian officer socially, but there is no 

118 



INTO GERMANY 

such evidence of loyalty to France among the com- 
mon people. 

At the custom house the German official made a 
perfunctory visit, asked a few questions about our 
trip, and dismissed us with his blessing. The fol- 
lowing day found us at the summit of the Vosges. 
We passed through the Neiderweiler tunnel, which 
i's a short one of five hundred meters, and soon 
afterwards came to the Arzweiler tunnel. Here 
we learned that two boats had just gone in, and as 
it would take them two hours to make the passage 
we decided to wait outside rather than in the 
tunnel. 

In the German canal we had been presented by 
the canal authorities with a large sign, or " shield " 
as they called it, which being displayed upon the 
boat entitled us to the right of way. This " shield " 
was a plank six feet long by a foot and a half 
wide and bore the imperative word Vorfahrts- 
recht in letters which filled the whole plank. It 
proved of inestimable value as it cleared the way 
ahead and as soon as it was sighted by the lock 
keepers they would prepare the lock for us even 
though about to lock a boat through from the other 
direction. It sometimes hurt our consciences, I will 
admit, to take the right of way over some poor 

119 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

devil of a canal-boat captain who had been waiting 
patiently for hours and who was working for his 
living while we were amusing ourselves, especially 
as he was paying his way and we were guests. In 
fact, we very often waived our privilege on this 
account. 

Passing through the Arzweiler tunnel we came 
out suddenly on a most beautiful and extraordinary 
view. We had pierced the summit of the Vosges 
and below us fell a steep, narrow valley with pre- 
cipitous slopes heavily wooded on either side. 
From where we emerged the canal descended in a 
great, curving flight of watery steps, each lock 
opening into a basin which in turn opened into the 
next, forming a water stairway three kilometers in 
length and containing fifteen steps. The lower 
ones were half hidden in the foliage and then 
curved away out of sight in the luscious valley be- 
neath. The whole effect of the place reminded me 
very much of Japan; the steep, pine-covered hills, 
the dainty little dwellings with their neat, winding 
paths and little flights of narrow steps twisting up 
between the tree trunks, but most of all the bright, 
clear water shimmering through the fresh foliage 
precisely as one sees in Japan where a little moun- 
tain rivulet will be led successively into a series of 

120 



INTO GERMANY 

diminutive rice paddies, each terraced against the 
hillside and receiving the overflow from the one 
above, and so descending to the valley beneath. 



" The whole effect of the place reminded me very much of 
Japan." 

As the locks came so near together we stopped 
the motor and " jackassed " the boat down by 

121 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

hand. Halfway to the bottom we had the only 
row which befell us during the entire voyage. 

A big German barge was coming up light, and 
we had to pass in one of the basins. The lock 
keeper wanted us to haul to the sill and tie up, 
but it looked as if the place he indicated would 
get us squeezed, so we declined. Apparently the 
bargee was indifferent as to whether he went to 
port or starboard or over us, for he gave us no 
time to haul to either side, starting his team on the 
run and charging down on the Beaver at full speed. 
Pomeroy was in the boat at the wheel; Ranney 
was ahead with the towline, and I was on the lock 
with a check line. The bargee was up forward 
with his pole, and an elderly lady was at the helm. 
Seeing the danger, Pomeroy addressed a peremp- 
tory remark to her, whereat she put her helm over 
and bumped head on into the stone wall. This 
so enraged the captain, a hulking young thickhead, 
that he directed a stream of violent abuse at Pom- 
eroy, whereupon Pomeroy proceeded to revile him 
in Apache French, Ranney cursed him in German, 
a splendid tongue for the purpose, and I admon- 
ished him in Lime'us Londonese. I have never 
seen a man give so ferocious an exhibition of rabid 
rage. He foamed up and down the deck of his 

122 




We lay in the heart of Strassburg. ' ' 



barge cursing and storming and waving his 
clenched fists to heaven, and the more he raved the 
more we laughed. Twice he made a motion to 
jump out on the lock and devour us, which if car- 
ried out might perhaps have earned him something 
quieting in the shape of a Yankee " jolt " on the 
chin, but he thought better of it. He was like one 
of those ferocious dogs which tear up and down 
behind the palings of their front fence, snarling 
with wild desire to get at you, but quite ignoring 
the fact that the front gate is wide open. 

123 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

We spent the night at Hochfelden, arriving in 
Strassburg the following day. This interesting 
city with its wonderful cathedral is too well known 
for me to attempt to describe. We lay in the heart 
of the town on the 111 River, off what is known as 
the Mohren Kopf, and there our American flag 
excited much interest and curiosity. 

We spent three days in Strassburg, refitting, tak- 
ing stores, and filling up with petroleum, of which 
we carried about one hundred gallons. Also we 
had the floors throughout carpeted with linoleum, 
a great relief to me as it kept Pomeroy from con- 
tinually scrubbing them. We also laid in medical 
stores, which are very cheap in Germany ; the bulk 
consisted of quinine, as we had been warned of the 
malarial fevers of the lower Danube. 

On the whole we felt that the most arduous 
part of our journey lay behind us, while the cru- 
cial point, that of getting up the shallow Main 
and into the old Ludwig Canal, was now removed 
but a few days. All that we were able to learn on 
this important question was of the most discour- 
aging character, but as Pomeroy cheerfully re- 
marked, it was simply a case where the Beaver had 
to climb the tree ! 

In Strassburg we were informed that the law re- 
124 



INTO GERMANY 

quired us to take a pilot for our run down the 
Rhine to the mouth of the river Main. Inasmuch 
as we always made it a point to obey the laws of 
the country through which we were passing, when 
not too inconvenient, we dropped down the 111 
River to the last lock, where we secured the serv- 
ices of a thickhead, who claimed to be a licensed 
pilot, but whose authenticity we doubted as he had 
neither his papers nor that crisp style which char- 
acterizes the breed. As there was no one else at 
hand we engaged him on the recommendation of 
the lock keeper, agreeing to pay him the regular 
pilot's fee of thirty marks for the run to Manheim. 

Passing through the lock we entered the Little 
Rhine, a short sluice from the main stream. Here 
our pilot picked up his ruder bote, a scow which 
towed about as easily as a sea anchor, and we 
pushed out into the Rhine. 

If you should ever have occasion to navigate 
your own boat in European waters do not have 
anything to do with a local pilot. He is no good. 
On the other hand, the regularly licensed, uni- 
formed, gold-laced species with the manners of a 
Chesterfield and the style of an admiral will be 
found absolutely dependable. In over fifteen hun- 
dred miles of dangerous river navigation, although 

125 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

we only took pilots when required by law for some 
short and difficult passage, we had experience with 
both kinds. The former is apt to be an ex-deck 
hand who knows the banks but not the bottom, or 
else a local riverman who has learned where he 
can go in his skiff and thinks that he can take you 
by the same path. But the duly licensed man is a 
wonder. He can take a six-barge tow through a 
narrow, tortuous channel where you could toss 
your cap on the ledges at either side, and where 
the treacherous shoals are shifting from day to day. 
Moreover, he can do it at night or through the 
early morning river mist more baffling than fog, 
and with or against a current which the Beaver 
could scarcely buck. 

Our makeshift pilot needed the whole river to 
steer the boat, being apparently unable to get rid 
of the idea that he was handling a stone-laden 
barge and throwing all of his weight on the wheel, 
which could be put over by the pressure of one 
finger. Ranney called his attention every few min- 
utes to the danger of parting our tiller lines, but in 
spite of that he came near wrecking us some dis- 
tance down the river. Wishing to sheer into the 
bank to drop his ruder bote, he twisted the wheel 
over so violently as to tear out one of the fair 

126 



INTO GERMANY 

leads of the steering gear, which jammed and left 
the boat out of control in the swift current. For- 
tunately we were standing by; one of us grabbed 
the wheel while the other jumped after for the 
tiller, and working together we accomplished our 
maneuver without mishap. 

Said somebody : " The most aggravating thing 
about this fool is that we don't need him ! Why, 
navigating this river is just like taking a car down 
the Champs Elysees! " 

This is quite true. The Rhine current is fairly 
swift and with a low river, such as we had, there 
are a great many shoals, but the courses of the 
channel are so clearly indicated by range poles from 
point to point on the bank that there is no excuse 
for going wrong. At the time the current looked 
very ferocious to us, but that was before we had 
navigated the Danube. In the Rhine we could 
hold our own anywhere if obliged to turn upstream 
to wait for a ferryboat to cross or a boat bridge 
to open; later on in the Danube we found many 
places where we could not stem the current at all. 
Once or twice on our way down the Rhine, while 
breasting the current as we waited for a boat 
bridge to open, I found myself wondering just 
what would happen if Dan, our motor, were to 

127 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

balk. Our anchor would not have held on that 
hard, gravelly bottom. Fortunately, however, 
Dan had overcome the turbulent and vicious hab- 
its of his youth, and had become absolutely de- 
pendable. 

It took about six and a half hours to run the 
hundred and thirty kilometers from Strassburg to 
Manheim, but we were dragging the pilot's heavy 
tub most of the way, and I do not think that our 
average running speed ever exceeded twelve kilo- 
meters an hour in fresh water. On arriving at 
Manheim our pilot acted as if he were viewing 
the city for the first time, and appeared to have no 
idea of where to find a berth. After he had cut 
several figures of eight in the swift current looking 
for some place to dodge in, Ranney became impa- 
tient and pointed out his shortcomings with such 
force and fluency that the man completely lost his 
head, and would have wrecked us but for a re- 
straining hand. In the end we ran past the town 
and turned up into the Neckar where we made a 
good berth and discharged our pilot. He was dan- 
gerous to us, and I am afraid that we were becom- 
ing dangerous to him. 




CHAPTER VIII 

FROM THE RHINE TO THE DANUBE 

|HE next morning, having decided that 
the law regarding Rhine pilots was 
an injudicious one, we disregarded it 
and made a good run past Worms and 
Oppenheim, arriving at the mouth of 
the Main opposite Mainz a little after the me- 
ridian. One could not mistake this river, its water 
being black as ink from the discharge of the big 
chemical factories below Frankfort. A very pe- 
culiar effect is produced at the line of demarcation 
where this Styx-colored stream meets the pale yel- 
low water of the Rhine. 

The Rhine from Strassburg to Mainz is neither 
interesting nor scenic. At first one sees the hills 
of Baden some distance from the river on the star- 
board side; lower down the country is flat and mo- 
notonous. Much more interesting are the power- 
ful towboats plowing up against the swift current 
with their trim steel barges, whose fast, fine lines 
would not disgrace a steam yacht. 

129 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

The signal system for boats passing each other 
on the Rhine and Danube is simple and efficient. 
The side on which to pass is indicated by a blue 
flag waved at the end of a long pole from the port 
or starboard end of the bridge. This signal is an- 
swered in the same way, and is unmistakable. The 
whistle is not used. 

We turned up into the Main in company with a 
number of tows bound for Frankfort, and as there 
were five locks and we no longer had our " vort- 
fahrtsrecht " privilege so much time was lost in 
locking through that the darkness came while we 
were still some miles below Niederad. It was very 
cheerless. Instead of the Beaver lying in a snug 
berth at Frankfort, and ourselves in a snug berth at 
the rathskeller, as we had anticipated, we found our- 
selves plowing up against the current of a strange 
river with a rocky bed, through the pitch dark in 
a drizzle of rain. There were bridges and tows and 
cable ferries and other disagreeable things, but 
there seemed to be no place to fetch up, so we got 
out our side lights and held on through the murk 
wondering how we were going to tell when we got 
to the place where we wanted to stop. The stern 
wave presently mounted in a way to indicate shoal 
water, and Pomeroy took a heave of the lead. 

130 



^/rfjp^ 




" Powerful towboats plowing up against the swift current." 

" A scant fathom," says he. 

"What's the bottom?" 

" Flint rocks, stuck on edge." 

We shifted out a little and presently got more 
water. The river was tortuous and the channel 
very narrow. Also it was late and we were getting 
hungry and tired and bored. The night was as 
dark as a chain locker; you could tell the water 
from the land and that was about all. The lights 
on the shore shone flat and blinding through the 
fine drizzle of rain. Before long I grew discon- 
tented. 

" We have come far enough to reach that lock," 
said I. " This is a foolish pastime. Let us creep 
quietly into the bank and tie up." 

" We have got to eat," said Ranney. 

That is always a powerful argument, so we held 
10 131 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

on at full speed. Presently Pomeroy said, " I will 
take a sounding." 

But there was no need. 

Biff. . . . Bang. . . . Bump. . . . Bumpety, 
bumpety, bumpety, bump! The Beaver climbed 
upon a stone wall, ran along the top for a way, and 
jumped down into the water on the other side. But 
she kept on going. Dan didn't care; that was 
wherein he excelled over the nickel-plated yacht en- 
gine. The Beaver drew about three feet, but given 
a good start Dan could take her along in two, for 
some considerable distance. 

" What the dickens was that? " 

" A spur of the Schwarz Wald. Never mind." 

" What do you think that you are driving? A 
steam roller or a racing car? " (This to me.) 

" Thunderweather ! .... and I wanting to tie 
up to that sausage barge back by the last . . ." 

Bifi. . . . Bang. . . . Bump! 

" Here we come to the Bavarian Alps! Go it, 
you sixteen-square-head-power tram car ! Go 'cross 
lots if you like ! We don't care ! " 

" Put her at the bank and we'll take the 
road. It's more direct." (That sounded like 
the artist.) 

" Can't help it, Ranney must have his dinner." 
132 



FROM THE RHINE TO THE DANUBE 

We kept her going. Only a little paint off the 
big American elm keel. Suddenly the lock loomed 
up ahead out of the encompassing gloom. 

11 We were on the wrong side of the river! " 

" You cannot be on both sides at once, and there 
is only one right side to this trickle." 

We tied up and then walked halfway across 
Germany in the dark until we came to a nice little 
inn, where our vexations were soon forgotten. 

When we reached Frankfort the following 
morning, the first question we asked was about the 
water in the Main, although we knew what the 
answer would be. 

" Wasserl " said the captain of the canal boat, 
11 with that motor boat out of sight of Frankfort 
to get it is not possible. If a month more early 
you had come, yes! To-day . . . nit. Each day 
it lower gets ! " 

It was true. Telephoning up the river we 
learned that owing to the extreme drought of the 
season the Main was navigable only to vessels 
drawing under twenty inches, whereas when not 
under way we drew two feet eight inches, and when 
running, three feet five inches. 

Said Pomeroy: " It's a beaver. She will have 
to climb the tree." 

133 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

I was secretly glad. Since sailing from London 
we had passed through two hundred and twenty- 
three locks. I never want to see another lock . . . 
except in the Panama Canal. 

The problem then was how to get the Beaver 
into the Danube. We consulted Herr Otto Eberl 
of Wurzburg, who wanted six hundred marks to 
float her up to Bamberg on a scow. That was too 
much. Inquiring further, Herr Ignatz Eingartner 
contracted to load her on a flat car for one hundred 
marks, take her to Regensberg for ninety marks, 
drop her into the Danube there for thirty marks. 
Insurance at seventeen marks. Total, two hun- 
dred and thirty-seven marks. 

Since the Beaver could not go up the Main and 
through the Ludwig Canal, which enters the Dan- 
ube at Regensberg, on her own bottom, the only 
difference that it made whether she went on the 
bottom of a scow or the bottom of a flat car was 
three hundred and sixty-three marks, which to us 
was a powerful factor. We therefore shipped her 
across to Regensberg forthwith. There we found 
her on our arrival, floating peacefully beside the 
bank none the worse for her overland journey, and 
in an hour or so we had filled our fuel tanks, rigged 
out the stern awning, and got things generally ship- 

134 




o 

-o 

&0 



135 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

shape for our little jaunt of nearly fifteen hundred 
miles to the Black Sea. 

The Danube is still a small stream at Regens- 
berg, but the current is swift and, as the channel 
is tortuous, winding down between shoals and 
rocky ledges, we were strongly advised to take a 
pilot, although this was not compulsory by law, ex- 
cept at certain dangerous passages. While dis- 
cussing the matter among ourselves a bystander 
informed us that the river was very low, that 
there were many false channels and shifting sand 
banks and rocks and waterfalls and cascades and 
whirlpools and stone dikes, and that without a 
pilot we would never get beyond the first bend 
alive. On hearing this Ranney accused him of 
being a pilot himself, which he admitted to be 
the fact. 

"If we have got to take a pilot for the whole 
Danube," said Pomeroy, " on reaching Sulina we 
will have to sell the boat to buy food ! " 

" The man is a liar," said Ranney, " and he is 
looking for a job ! " 

The river looked wet enough to me. Personally 
I hate pilots, and dislike to have any stranger take 
charge of my boat. This was particularly the case 
on the Beaver, where it was often necessary to 

136 



FROM THE RHINE TO THE DANUBE 

handle the steering wheel and motor controls to- 
gether. 

It did not take much discussion to decide us to 
try it alone. Encouraging Ranney to insult the 
prophet of ill we heated up Dan and turned him 
over before a wondering audience, little suspect- 
ing how near the ill-omened croakings would come 
to being fulfilled within the next ten minutes. 

In loading the Beaver on the car they had set 
her down on athwartships skids, deeply notched to 
receive the keel. These skids were big balks of 
pine about six by four inches square and the width 
of the car in length. In two of the skids the 
notches cut for the keel fitted closely, the weight of 
the boat jamming them hard and fast, so that when 
the boat was lifted off the car and lowered into the 
water under the crane at Regensberg these skids 
had remained attached. A few blows of a maul 
would have knocked them clear, but nobody had 
taken the trouble, and once in the water the wood 
had swelled and jammed even tighter. The water 
itself was too turbid to permit of the skids being 
seen. 

The Beaver was lying in rather an awkward 
place to get away from as the current was very 
swift, her head was upstream and the river too 

137 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

narrow to turn without going alternately ahead and 
astern. To complicate things still further the bank 
just below us was shelving and faced with stone, 
while a little distance down there was a railroad 
bridge with a big stone pier in midstream. The 
river just below was filled with shoals. But 
although requiring careful judgment the maneuver 
of turning around under way offered no difficulty 
with a boat which handled as nicely as did the 
Beaver. 

As we started out into the stream it struck me 
that the boat was singularly unresponsive, which 
was not altogether strange considering that she was 
dragging two eight-foot balks of timber athwart 
her keel, but I ascribed this sluggishness to the 
force of the current. Working upstream far 
enough to make the turn and get straightened out 
before being drifted too close to the bridge pier, I 
attempted to get around in the usual way, when, 
instead of swinging as she should have done, she lay 
heavy and inert, the rudder apparently of no effect 
and the screw lashing up the water without result. 

In vain I put her ahead and astern ; she could not 
seem to gather way enough in the short scope of- 
fered by the width of the river to get under control 
of the wheel, which was very puzzling, as we had 

138 



./"" 


.. \ 


,..■■•*'" 

[(.,■ 




l 


f(y 

y 


.,-;■*'" 










Winding tortuously between high, thickly wooded hills. * ' 



139 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

often spun her around almost in her tracks. We 
were flying downstream broadside on with disaster 
looming closer every moment. Pomeroy and Ran- 
ney looked around at me inquiringly, but feeling 
that something was wrong without knowing what 
it was, kept quiet — a purely Anglo-Saxon accom- 
plishment in a crisis ! 

To have gone astern would have meant being 
broken in two across the bridge pier; there was no 
room ahead of us owing to the shelving wall. We 
were swirling down on a line of shoals, which had 
we struck broadside on in a long, narrow boat 
like the Beaver, would have resulted in our being 
rolled over and over in the swift current. As a 
last resort I tried jumping the boat ahead suddenly 
by throwing the throttle wide, and at the same time 
giving the propeller blades the angle of their full- 
est thrust. The boat lunged powerfully, there was 
a bumping under the bilge, a commotion in the 
water, and up came first one big balk of timber 
and then another ! 

" Why, those are the skids! " cried Pomeroy. 

" Yes," I answered, " and they nearly skidded 
us. Another two minutes and they might have 
brought the keel up with them ! " 

I do not think that anybody but myself realized 
140 



\ 

i... 

.■•■"•"• ••..•'"■" 




Each day tells a new and changeful story.' ' 



what a close shave that was, especially as the ob- 
stacles had been ripped off in time to get the boat 
straightened out before reaching the bad water. 
Previously to this we had had one close shave in 
the Thames at Wapping Stairs, had been in some 
danger of destruction when the motor stopped off 
the French coast in the Channel, and had also " en- 
joyed " some twenty or thirty other " exciting inci- 
dents." But as a diaphoretic for the man at the 
wheel those skids held the record up to date ! 
Such was our send-off on the long chute from 
141 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the highlands of Central Europe down to the 
sea. 

It is a fascinating thing to strike a great river 
far up in its course and follow it day after day as 
it winds down past mountain and plain, through 
rich, fertile valleys, receiving one great tributary 
after another, flowing past the moldering remnants 
of ancient civilizations, and washing the walls of 
busy modern cities. Each day tells its new and 
changeful story, until the pretty little river, at the 
start scarcely more than a picturesque streamlet 
across which a man could almost wade, becomes 
a vast, majestic stretch of water from the middle 
of which one sees the shores bathed in the blue of 
distance. Onward it goes, skirting kingdoms as at 
first it skirted hamlets, opening new vistas the 
depths of which lie over the horizon, flowing ever 
on and into the unknown. 

Unknown it proved to us from the very start. 
Before Regensberg was a kilometer astern we had 
tasted of the uncertainty of swift river navigation, 
bouncing over a cobbly shoal and squattering into 
the rapids beyond, half in and half out of the wa- 
ter like a wounded duck. A little later, having 
absolutely nothing to go by, we took the wrong side 
of an island and ran up onto a sand bank, but for- 

142 




Just below Regensberg we passed * Walhalla. ' ' ' 



143 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

tunately the current was not swift at this point 
and by shifting our extra drums of fuel and revers- 
ing hard we slid off into the deep water again. 

The Danube is a queen among rivers. Never in 
Europe, Asia, Africa, nor the two Americas have 
I seen its like. The length of that part of its 
course which we followed, if laid off in a straight 
line for purposes of comparison would be almost 
equal to the distance from New Orleans to Win- 
nipeg, but excepting the environments of Vienna, 
and Budapest there was not a single day's run 
where the scenery failed to be charmingly pictur- 
esque while often it was grandly magnificent. 

Just below Regensberg we passed " Walhalla," 
the beautiful " Temple of Fame," a marble palace 
erected by the mad Ludwig I, King of Bavaria. 
It rises pure and white and many columned against 
a background of luscious green on the brink of a 
hill overlooking the river. 

The scenery of all of this part of the Danube 
is of a delicious, half-wild, half-pastoral beauty, 
but for the first week we were kept too busy watch- 
ing the river itself to spend much time in admira- 
tion of the valley through which it flowed. Charg- 
ing down at full speed, with a current which at 
times we could not have stemmed, and trying to 

144 



FROM THE RHINE TO THE DANUBE 

follow a narrow tortuous channel winding through 
ledges or deflected from treacherous shoals, we 
had little opportunity for day dreaming. There 
are many long stretches where the channel is either 
not indicated at all or if it is, by slender spars 
which the force of the current keeps submerged. 
Sometimes a quick bend would present to us a river 
split into three or four branches running between 
an archipelago of islands. There was never any 
time to deliberate on our course. Tearing down as 
we were the question had to be decided at once 
and finally. Our charts were useless, being merely 
land maps. The location of the true channel had 
to be guessed at, or more accurately determined 
from the character of the banks and the general 
expression of the river. Usually this was not dif- 
ficult, but at certain times taking the true course 
was a matter of chance. More than once during 
the day we would drive down into what looked 
as if it must be the channel suddenly to find our- 
selves in a cul-de-sac, or funnel, where the current 
swirled down through gradually narrowing banks, 
finally rushing through a sluice filled with snags, 
rocks, and shoals. If we discovered our mistake in 
time we could usually turn and crawl back foot by 
foot into the main stream; if not, we would throw 

145 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

on the full strength of the motor to get quick steer- 
age way and shoot the rapids. Again, we might 
travel for kilometers out of the main channel and 
hidden away behind some island but in perfectly 
good water, eventually coming out into the river 
again. 

Some of these experiences were very exciting. 
There was double danger in taking the ground. In 
the first place, to have struck and swung broadside 
where the current was swift would have meant 
being rolled over and over like a log, the boat 
smashed and ourselves possibly crushed; on the 
other hand, if we had run aground in some of the 
remote places between islands and away from the 
main stream where we sometimes found ourselves, 
we might have stayed there indefinitely. Such 
feeble gear as we had aboard would not have 
moved the Beaver if she " went on hard." Owing 
to the turbid, " absinthe frappe " color we could 
not see the bottom in over a meter of water, the 
quickest indication that it was shoaling being the 
rapidly mounting stern wave. When this began 
to " comb," our keel was not far from bottom, and 
the course was then to swing as soon as possible to 
the side on which the quartering wave was the 
lower. 

146 




"The scenery is of a delicious, half- wild, half-pastoral 
beauty." 

Our first day's run took us up to Deggendorf 
in Bavaria, where the Danube receives the Isar. 
Here we found that we were required by law to 
take a pilot, the passage between this point and 
Passau being very dangerous. As there was no 
regular pilot on the spot the local ruder club kindly 
recommended a man whom we took, but who 
proved to be incompetent. Just below Deggen- 
dorf the river roars down in a cataract, through a 
shallow channel winding among ledges, and twice 
our pilot bumped us over a rock, which so fright- 
ened him that at Vilshofen he completely collapsed 
and was unwilling to go on. Ranney, the spokes- 
man where German was current, harangued him as 
follows : 

11 147 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Ranney: Do you call yourself a pilot? 

Pilot : Certainly I am a pilot. 

Ranney: Hell is full of such pilots! (At least 
it sounded like that.) Do you think that we 
are such (German expression not translatable) 
fools as to pay another fool to bump this boat 
on the rocks when we can do it ourselves for 
nothing ? 

Pilot : The river is very low. 

Ranney : That is fortunate ! If it were high you 
would bump us on the roofs of the houses. Other 
steamers go through without hitting. 

Pilot : They draw less water than you do. (This 
was true.) 

Ranney : Do you think that you can go the rest 
of the way without knocking the bottom out of the 
boat? 

Pilot: It is necessary for me to reflect. 

Ranney translated this for me. 

" Kick him out," said I, " and let us go on alone. 
Before we are finished we will wreck this boat try- 
ing to obey their silly laws." 

Ranney (turning to pilot) : What is the result 
of your reflection? 

Pilot : It has occurred to me that I must ask the 
permission of the pilot here. This is his part of 

148 




'The river scenery is very beautiful." 



the river. If he gives me permission I will go on 
with you. 

But that settled it. 

149 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" If there is a real pilot here," said Pomeroy, 
" let us get him and chuck this somnambulist out 
on the beach." 

That was what we did. The new pilot, a quiet, 
businesslike man, took us the rest of the short dan- 
gerous stretch to Passau without touching. There, 
having complied with the law, we paid him off. 




CHAPTER IX 

ALONG THE RIVER 

HE scenery between Passau and Linz 
is very beautiful, winding tortuously 
between high, thickly wooded hills, 
the Danube Mountains, which are a 
southern spur of the Bohmer Wald, 
all of which belong to the Austrian Alps. They 
rise precipitously, and are often capped by the 
ruins of mediaeval castles, almost indistinguishable 
from the rocky summits on which they rise. Some 
of these grim aeries are still in a splendid state of 
preservation. 

At Engelhartszell, about an hour's run from Pas- 
sau, we reached the Austrian frontier, where we 
were passed without any questions beyond such as 
were prompted by the friendly interest taken in 
our American ensign, flown, as we were told, for 
the first time on the Austrian Danube from a sea- 
going vessel. 

That night we tied up at Obermuhl, a wild, de- 
licious spot where the river narrows to flow deeply 

I5i 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

between high, thickly wooded hills, sweet with the 
smell of ferns. We were given a good dinner at an 
auberge on the bank, and the night had the cool 
freshness of the mountains. 

The day following we made a good run which 
ended sadly. We had left early, stopped for 
dejeuner at Linz, and late in the afternoon disaster 
overtook us. 

Ranney was at the wheel, Pomeroy was forward 
on lookout, and I was washing some photographic 
films in the engine room. We were shooting down- 
stream at over twenty kilometers an hour, and 
for some distance past the river had been fairly 
open. Suddenly Ranney said, " Where is the 
channel? " 

We were then on the left bank. Looking ahead 
I saw what I took to be a steamboat landing over 
the port bow. 

" This side," said I. " You are all right." 

" Looks like the other side to me," said Ranney. 

I studied the river more carefully. At the same 
moment Pomeroy sang out, " Head over toward 
that steamboat landing ! " 

But almost as he spoke we saw a suspicious-look- 
ing riffle on the water dead ahead. 

" Hard aport ! " said I. Ranney spun the wheel 
152 



ALONG THE RIVER 

over and at the same moment we touched. Pom- 
eroy had seen the shoal as soon as we and was 
howling at us to keep off. Knowing that if we 
once stopped we could never back off against that 
savage current I reached for the throttle and threw 
it wide, hoping to drag across as we had done once 
or twice before. The bar was made up of smooth, 
round stones about the size of a lemon, and as we 
had struck it on the edge and at high speed with 
a slim boat weighing about seven tons it seemed 
possible that our way might carry us clean across. 
Our screw was protected by a heavy iron shoe 
which would take the weight of the stern and re- 
ceive the rudder post, so there was no danger of 
damage. 

We charged through that gravel bed like an 
automobile, the boat climbing higher and higher, 
and if we could have steered her she would have 
wriggled out into deep water again. But the rud- 
der was straightened out by the gravel through 
which it plowed and therefore useless. Slower and 
slower we went, the propeller churning up the cob- 
bles under the stern. Then we stopped. I cut off 
the motor, and we sat for a moment listening to 
the roar of the water across the shoal. 

" Thunderweather ! " 

153 . 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" We are hitched," said Pomeroy. " Here we 
stop until the winter rains." 

There was a steamer coming up far on the other 
side of the river, and for a moment I was tempted 
to take in our ensign, not wishing to make a target 
for ridicule of the only American flag on seventeen 
hundred and seventy miles of Danube, but decided 
that the flag was there for good or ill. 

" There is no danger of our being run down," 
said Ranney. " We can sleep in peace." 

" What shall we do? " asked Pomeroy. 

" It is necessary for me to reflect," said I. 

" The river is dropping every day," said Pom- 
eroy, who when not a sanguine optimist is an inky 
pessimist. 

"How much wine is there aboard?" asked 
Ranney. 

" None," said Pomeroy, " and the cobbles are 
scouring out from under the stern. We are going 
higher every minute." 

I pointed out that such a view was pessimism 
on a debauch, and that nothing short of a ten-ton 
crane could put her any higher. By throwing on 
full power I had already put her as high as she 
could go. Then I reflected. 

Thinking the situation over cheered me up. I 
154 



ALONG THE RIVER 

pointed out to the others that we could not have 
found a better place in which to " pile up " on the 
whole Danube. The water was clear, the scenery 
was charming, and the air fine. But there was no 
pleasing the artist, who began to prick off our 




"The water was clear, the scenery was charming.' ' 

course and tell us where we would have been at 
half past seven if we had not struck. 

It was then about half past five in the afternoon. 
We were almost in the middle of the river on the 
outer edge of the shoal, which reached nearly to 
the left bank, from which it was separated by a 
narrow channel. Any attempt to warp off with 
such light gear as we had aboard was out of the 
question; our big anchor might have held the boat 
against the current, but that was about all. 

155 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Less than half a mile upstream there was a cable 
ferryboat, and it seemed most probable that the 
ferryman would have a big grapnel with hawser 
and tackle. The proper wrecking operation was 
obvious: that was, to put the grapnel at the end 
of a long, stout hawser in the stern of a pulling 
boat, hang to the ferryboat until she got opposite 
the Beaver, then cast off, drop down with the cur- 
rent, let go the grapnel well upstream, and bring 
the end of the hawser aboard the Beaver. With a 
good purchase and four or five men to heave, some- 
thing would have to move, and if the anchor were 
big enough it might be the boat. 

In the meantime, knowing that all swift rivers 
are capable of quick rises at times from rains 
higher up, it seemed a good plan on general prin- 
ciples to get an anchor out astern. I had grave 
doubts of my being able to pull our sampan against 
the current, but decided to have a try, so we threw 
her overboard, first taking the precaution to make 
a heaving line fast to the painter. But pulling 
my hardest I could not even hold my own, and 
was whisked downstream and hauled back by the 
others, incidentally getting capsized in the process. 

" That," said Pomeroy, " is a failure." 

" It is more. It is a farce." 

i 5 6 



ALONG THE RIVER 

"What next?" 

11 Comedy. I will disrobe and walk upstream 
to the edge of the shoal with the anchor." 

That job was like a clog-footed nightmare. The 
water was only waist deep, but the current was so 
swift that it took me downstream on the run. 
With ski one could have reached Vienna in time 




" Less than half a mile upstream there was a cable ferry- 
boat. " 



for dinner. I soon found, however, that with an 
eighty-pound anchor on one shoulder I could get 
to windward, but I did not get it far enough, for 
when we all took a strain we found that we could 
heave the anchor home through the loose gravel. 
I tried again, and at the end of half an hour's 
hard work succeeded in getting it out in slightly 
deeper water. The others watched me with languid 
interest. 

157 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" Do you need any help? " asked Pomeroy, po- 
litely. 

" Oh, no ; thank you. But do come in ; the water 
is fine!" 

He came and we tried it together, I carrying the 
anchor, and the artist behind me and buttressing 
us both against the weight of the current with the 
boat hook. But it was not a notable success. The 
artist was not as " deep draughted " as I, and 
twenty years of French cooking and dining out 
had increased the dimensions of his submerged sec- 
tion. Once below the Plimsoll mark he went to 
leeward fast. In the end I had the anchor in one 
hand, the boat hook in the other, and Pomeroy 
was hanging to the hawser to keep from going to 
Budapest alone. If we had been carried over the 
edge of the shoal we would have seen a good deal 
of Austria-Hungary before we could have swum to 
the bank. 

In time we got the anchor out almost to the end 
of the cable, went back aboard, and hove taut and 
made fast. The artist then produced a bottle of 
brandy, which he had procured in London, and kept 
hidden and untampered with. We needed it, for 
the water was cold. 

Ranney and I decided to go ashore in the sampan 
158 




3? "A village on the upper Danube.' ' 



and interview the ferry people. This sampan was 
the little tub which we had built in Pomeroy's 
studio on the rue des Sablons, and was eight feet 
long by two and a half beam. It had been drying 
out on the cabin house and leaked like a bait car, 
but Ranney bailed the water out while I pulled 
strenuously for the shore. Crossing the channel 
near the bank it was touch and go, but we arrived, 
some distance downstream. 

Ranney explained our needs to the ferryman, 
who said that the scheme was the proper one, 
and volunteered to conduct operations himself the 
following morning. He showed us a big four- 

159 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

pronged grapnel which might have weighed two 
hundred-weight, and a hundred and fifty fathoms 
of good, stout hawser, also a double tackle. He 
then detailed us a man with one of the long river 
boats, propelled like a gondola, to go out to get 
Pomeroy. Accordingly, we hung behind the ferry- 
boat which tacked across the river, driven only by 
the force of the current and held in position by a 
trolley which traveled on a cable swung across up- 
stream, and when opposite the Beaver we cast off 
and dropped down. 

As we glided alongside there issued from the 
cabin a cheerful burst of song to the music of the 
" Blue Danube " : 

We're pollywogs fine — Bl'p-bl'p . . . bl'p-bl'p! 
We live in the slime - Bl'p-bl'p . . . bl'p-bl'p! 

It appears that the artist had continued to 
fortify his system against the chill of his immer- 
sion, and had passed from his state of acute pessi- 
mism to one of radiant optimism. But the shadow 
of calamity still lurked in the background, and as 
we sculled ashore he said: 

"I am cheered up at this moment . . . but I 
know that I am going to be awfully sad over this 
job in an hour or two. We will get off all right 

1 60 



ALONG THE RIVER 

of course . . . only I do not see how we are going 
to do it." 

" She is roosting as high as the skysail yard, and 
that is no deep-sea pleasantry, but if you could see 
that big red ferryboat's hand hook you would 
burst into song again." 

Our boatman directed us to a tavern where we 
found a huge, handsome woman, cooking schnitzel 
over a charcoal fire. She was a blonde, blue-eyed 
Brunhilde, and looked, even while frying schnitzel, 
as if she had just escaped from Wagnerian opera. 
Observing our admiration as she served our beer, 
she informed us that she was twenty-five years old, 
weighed one hundred kilos (or it may have been 
two hundred) , and was very lonely, as her husband 
was off in the Austrian Tyrol on his military 
service. 

" Tell her," said I to Ranney, " that if he were 
any kind of a man he would desert." 

Ranney did so, whereat she smiled at him. Then 
Pomeroy told her that we were from the motor 
boat which was hung up to dry in the river, and 
she replied that she had observed our predicament, 
and that we would never get the boat off. 

" There ! " said the artist, pessimist again, " that 
is what I told you." 

161 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" Tell her," said I to Ranney, " that since we 
have seen her we don't want to get the boat off." 

Ranney told her, and she smiled and turned her 
blue eyes on him again. 

" Tell her that / said it," I snapped. 

" Tell her yourself," said Ranney. 

I turned to Pomeroy. " You tell her." 

" Do not annoy me with such trivial matters," 
said he. " This is a crisis in our lives." 

I saw that his mind had gone back to the boat. 
I will never again travel through a country the lan- 
guage of which I do not speak and with two com- 
panions who speak it fluently. 

Brunhilde told us that there was to be a dance 
that evening, and cordially invited us to the party. 
Ranney and I accepted and had a very pleasant 
evening, but a presage of ill had descended upon 
the artist, who refused to quit the terrace, where 
he sat in solitude, imbibing large tankards of the 
spiritless beer of the country. Ranney, who is a 
very good dancer, made a great hit, and was 
strongly urged to execute the national dance of 
America, which they understood to be "dar kak 
volk." 

A little after midnight we bade a qualified good- 
by to our kind hostess, and when a waiter had 

162 



ALONG THE RIVER 

hunted up our boatman and dragged him out of 
his bed, we went down to the river and started out 
aboard. It was very dark, overcast, and we had 
neglected to leave a light on the Beaver, but our 
boatman and the sleepy, under-sized boy whom he 
had brought along to handle the bow pole, knew 
their work. Cutting across to the edge of the shoal 
they shoved the long, narrow skiff up against the 
fierce current for about half a mile, putting us 
alongside very nicely. 

The wrecking crew came off the following morn- 
ing while we were cooking our breakfast, and 
placed the grapnel as planned. While we were 
rigging the tackle the local Herr Strommeister 
(stream master) came alongside and took command 
of operations. The men worked quickly and intel- 
ligently, getting a powerful purchase on the haw- 
ser. Making fast to the heavy samson post, which 
we had insisted upon having, five hands heaved 
away, and it was not long before we were afloat 
again. As the boat slid off stern upstream one hand 
had to get a sweep over the bow to keep her 
straightened out as the weight of the current 
jammed the rudder, and there was danger that she 
might take a sheer on the hawser, broach to, and 
capsize. As soon as possible we started the motor, 
12 163 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

then slipped the cable, and turned around under 
power, bucking the swift current again with great 
difficulty. 

When we landed the crew at the ferry we asked 
for the bill. 

" But there is nothing to pay! " said the Strom- 
meister. " It is a pleasure to assist foreign visitors 
who find our river of sufficient interest to travel its 
length in a motor boat ! " 

The ferryman said also that we owed him noth- 
ing, but that if we chose we might give his men a 
few marks. In the end we recompensed them all, 
including the ferryman. The Strommeister, be- 
ing an official, we invited to lunch with us at 
Melk, which was two kilometers back from the 
river. 

Bidding farewell to our friends in need we got 
under way at 1 130, and by 7 130 had reached 
Nussdorf, one hundred and eight kilometers be- 
low Melk and about six kilometers above Vienna, 
when darkness overtook us. Through the influ- 
ence of some Austrian friend Ranney had obtained 
permission for us to lie in the Donau Canal, which 
passes through the heart of the city. The follow- 
ing morning we dropped down to the canal, where 
we met with the first accident resulting in any 

164 



ALONG THE RIVER 

damage to the boat which had happened since 
sailing from London. 

The Donau Canal enters at right angles with the 
river, and the gates of the lock are at the end of 
a U-shaped depression in the bank. Ranney, on 
presenting his credentials to the Strommeister, was 
told that the gates would be open for us the fol- 
lowing morning at nine o'clock, so that we might 
go directly in without being obliged to hang off 
and on in the swift current. Accordingly, a little 
after nine we ran down, when on rounding the 
shoulder of the bank I discovered that the lock 
gates were still shut. As there looked to be dead 
water in the little hole close up against them, I 
edged in to lie alongside the wall until the lock 
should open. But instead of the dead water which 
I had hoped to find, we were caught in a powerful 
back eddy and flung violently ahead. It was too 
late to sheer off, so I reversed hard, and put the 
helm over in an effort to hit the wall rather than 
the lock gates. 

Pomeroy and Ranney were up forward, and ex- 
pecting every minute to feel the suck and jar of 
the reversed propeller and to see the headway 
checked. In still water we could, in emergency, 
stop the boat from full headway in twice our 

165 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

length, so neither man even thought of getting a 
fender over the bow. The result was that we hit 
the wall a solid bump high up on the stem, bending 
the stock of our anchor, and springing the sheer 
strake sufficiently to open up two seams in the for- 
ward deck planking. The side planking did not 
budge, neither did Dan, who weighed a ton and a 
half, but was set down on bed plates which would 
have held the engines of a tugboat. The only dam- 
age was on deck, as the starboard side must have 
sprung slightly out, then back again, but the gaping 
fissures looked very bad indeed, especially as one 
of the deck planks was splintered its whole length. 

At the last moment the two up forward had sim- 
ply hung on. When we had backed away and got 
a couple of lines to the wall, Pomeroy came aft 
shaking his head. 

" What was the matter? " he asked. 

" I think that we were going too fast." 

" You didn't get me off ! " said Ranney. " I 
hung onto the samson post ! " 

11 Much damage? " I asked. 

" Gawd-o-gawd! " said the artist. " Her bow 
is crumpled in like a busted accordion, and there is 
a crevasse in the deck that it makes you frightened 
and dizzy to look into ! " 

166 



ALONG THE RIVER 

It would have given us plenty of room to enter 
if they had opened one of the lock gates, but the 
lock keeper, who had observed my technique in 
coming alongside, opened both, and then requested 
us to let them haul us in by hand. Apparently he 
was afraid that I would take his lock with me and 
leave him out of a job. 

" What will we do about those open seams? " 
asked Pomeroy. 

" We will wait until we find two stone-laden 
barges breasted a little apart, and then ram in at 
our top notch and jam these cracks together 
again! " 

" At Regensburg," observed Pomeroy, "I re- 
ceived a letter from a friend who said, ' . . . how 
I envy you drifting idly down on the bosom of that 
glorious stream. . . .' " 

" Wish he were here! " 

And so, saddened and chagrined, we entered the 
stately city of Vienna, reflecting on the fact that 
our descent of the Danube was only just begun, 
and that there were still over twelve hundred miles 
of treacherous river between us and the sea. 




CHAPTER X 

DOWN THE DANUBE 

|F you ever go down the Danube in 
your own boat, do not lie in the 
Donau Canal while at Vienna. We 
did, and were tormented by visitors 
whom, considering their kindly inter- 
est, it would have been ungracious to ignore. We 
lay to the bank near the Maria Theresa bridge, 
and the curious spectacle of a small sea-going 
motor boat flying the American ensign in the cen- 
ter of Vienna made us the nucleus of a mob of 
spectators. Reading, writing, or any relaxation 
was quite impossible even in the cabin or in the 
privacy of the cockpit, which could be completely 
tented off. No formal invitation to come aboard 
was apparently considered necessary. There would 
be a scuffle of feet, a jar, a little more mud on 
the deck, and a genial voice exclaiming in English 
— of a sort: 

" Py chingo! But dis vas a bleasure to see our 
flac ! It iss de feerst times I haf seen mein Ameri- 

168 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

can flac on any vessel in Austria." And then there 
would be the usual courtesies and explanations and 
tour of inspection. 

Throughout the whole of our trip from London 
to the bitter end we always made it a point to treat 
every visitor with the utmost courtesy, no matter 
how ill timed the call, feeling as it were a certain 
sense of responsibility to the flag which we were 
carrying for the first time across Europe on an 
American vessel, and wishing to leave agreeable 
souvenirs in our wake. But we soon grew careful 
in picking out a berth where the populace was un- 
able to ramble on and off the boat as if she were a 
landing stage. If we had lain in the open river on 
the outside of a barge, our three days' stop in Vi- 
enna would have been much pleasanter. 

On September 3d we ran out of Vienna, and 
without a pilot continued down the river. Before 
we had got far we took the wrong side of an 
island and ran down into a cul-de-sac which ended 
in extensive shoals, but with a good deal of diffi- 
culty we managed to turn around and shove our 
way back against the swift current into the channel. 
This sort of thing was continually happening, and 
sometimes from a labyrinthine passage in an archi- 
pelago of islands we would look far across the 

169 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

river and see a steamer's smoke spouting up from 
a passage which had looked to us as we approached 
it like a hair-raising, reef-strewn cataract. Advice 
obtained in advance almost invariably proved use- 
less to us, as the steamboat people lacked the imag- 
ination to appreciate the different conditions be- 
tween navigating a little motor boat, low in the 
water but quick of control, and a big steamer, 
slower to handle, but from the high bridge of 
which it was much easier to pick out deep water or 
shoals. For instance, we were repeatedly warned 
of the danger in making the passage of the Grein 
between Linz and Vienna, where the river roars 
through a narrow gorge choked by rocks and islets. 
But this place, while exciting, from the swiftness 
of the stream, was absolutely easy navigation for 
us, the channel being quite unmistakable, and 
blasted to a depth of three meters, with a width 
of two hundred and sixty feet. The danger lay in 
making the sharp turns in the swift current, which, 
while quick work for a big steamer, was not diffi- 
cult for us, and we went through without any pilot, 
and no particular emotion beyond that of admira- 
tion for the wonderfully beautiful mountain scen- 
ery. On the other hand, we were told that the run 
from Vienna to Pressburg was all plain sailing. 

170 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

" Follow the Danube," said a steamboat captain 
largely, and we followed it through island, across 
shoals, twisting and turning with the lead going 
constantly and the propeller reversed as often as 
ahead, while the recollection of our recent misad- 
venture at Melk loomed sinister in our minds. It 
is one thing to follow the Danube when you know 
the channel and are looking down on the shoal 
spots from a height of thirty or forty feet above 
the water, and another when you are down so low 
that it is impossible to tell the ripple made by a 
flaw of the wind striking down through a gap in 
the hills from the sand bank on which you are go- 
ing to stop. 

We did not linger to visit the famous battlefield 
of Wagram, where Napoleon defeated the Aus- 
trians in 1809 with a loss on each side of about 
twenty-five thousand men. We spent the night at 
Pressburg, where we heard some wonderful Hun- 
garian music (we had crossed into Hungary about 
eight kilometers above Pressburg). Whenever 
you hear particularly good music in the Balkans 
you may be sure that it is of Gypsy origin. This 
strange, furtive nomadic race is much in evidence 
in this part of the world, there being 300,000 of 
them recorded in Turkey-in-Europe alone. 

171 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

It is difficult to classify the Gypsies ethnolog- 
ically. They give one the peculiar impression of 
not belonging to the humanity of our world, and 
seem almost like inhabitants of some other planet 
who have landed on this earth through some mis- 
take, and being unable to adapt themselves, must 
continually prowl back and forth like wild, sly, 
half-tamed animals in captivity. 

It has always puzzled me how to regard the 
Gypsy : whether as the degraded remnants of some 
once-elevated caste or merely as a pariah people. 
Illiterate as they are, utterly uneducated, with no 
actual religion, unless it be a sort of mysticism 
which they keep closely to themselves, dirty, va- 
grant, dishonest in petty ways, utterly untrust- 
worthy, they have at the same time some very 
elevated qualities. Their devotion to their parents 
is equal to that of the Chinese ; they are extremely 
kind to their little children, and I have been told 
by people who knew them well that a Gypsy love 
is very capable of reaching sublime heights of 
generosity and self-sacrifice. When the affection 
of a Gypsy is gained, his fidelity is said to be 
absolute and unwavering and cannot be betrayed. 
As musicians they are quite marvelous, when one 
considers that this faculty is with the Gypsy in 

172 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

most cases a pure natural gift and not the result 
of a talent developed by practice and study. The 
bulk of the musicians in the average Hungarian 
band — indeed, one may say the best of them — 
are usually Gypsies, and I do not think that I have 
ever heard such violin playing as that performed 
by Gypsies. 

Physically they are often beautiful when young, 
but senile decay commences at a very early age. 
The young people of both sexes are usually per- 
fectly made, so far as one can distinguish through 
their rags, with lithe, straight bodies, strong, 
graceful, and delicately molded limbs, such as one 
might expect in an aristocratic stock, skins like 
satin, black, abundant hair, straight and fine in 
texture, and lustrous, intelligent eyes in which 
there always lurks a gleam of cunning. Gypsy 
eyes, although black, are also said to give out the 
peculiar flat, green glint observed in the eyes of 
the cat, and in moments of anger or excitement, 
when the pupil is dilated, become round disks of 
lambent green. Gypsy hands and feet are small 
and graceful and possess that expression of intel- 
ligence which one associates with the hands of 
people of a higher mentality who use them with 
their brains. 

173 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

The Gypsies are generally supposed to be of 
Hindu origin, and their language is of direct 
Sanskrit derivation and contains a great many 
Hindustani words. The fact that there was a 
large migration of Gypsies from Egypt would 
have no particular significance, as they are such 
a nomadic people and continually wander from 
place to place. All through the Orient the Gyp- 
sies are known as Chingeni, which becomes Tsigani 
in Hungary, Zingari in Italy, Zigeuner in Ger- 
many, and Tsigane in France. The Balkan Gyp- 
sies are an absolutely pure stock, which no doubt 
accounts very greatly for their fineness of type, 
the simple reason for this being that they are held 
to be utter pariahs of the lowest caste, and no 
other race will have any physical contact with 
them. This seems strange and inexplicable when 
one considers the singular beauty and fascination 
of the young Gypsy women, many of whom are 
absolutely lovely when judged from any stand- 
point of feminine charm, whether of East or West. 
There seems to be some deep, underlying natu- 
ral antipathy, some cosmic incompatibility which 
inhibits the attraction of a seductive Gypsy girl 
for even so low caste a creature as a Kurd ha- 
mal. , People I have asked to explain this merely 

174 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

shrugged and said that it was so. There appears 
to be also a superstition that tragedy invariably 
follows in the wake of Gypsy love. 

Although the Gypsies in Constantinople appear 
to have a fairly permanent abiding place, they 
nevertheless spend a good deal of their time in 
wandering about the Peninsula, returning to their 
malhallah for the inclement season. Among them- 
selves they appear to have no organization beyond 
that of family, no code of morals as we understand 
the meaning of the word, no organized religion, 
since they calmly adopt that of the country in 
which they happen to be — a delicate attention 
which deceives nobody. In Turkey they are listed 
as Mohammedans, although observing none of the 
forms of Islam. The good-natured Turks seem to 
regard the Gypsies with the same indifferent in- 
dulgence as they do the dogs of Constantinople, 
nor does the government rate them as responsible 
human beings. The men are exempt from mili- 
tary service and the women never become inmates 
of Turkish harems. On the other hand, the Turks 
enjoy the Gypsies' music, often patronize their 
soothsayers, some of whom appear to be gifted 
with occult powers of a very advanced degree, and 
often go to see their dance, which is a very pictu- 

175 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

resque and interesting sight and should not be 
missed by any visitors to Constantinople. 

The beauty of the Gypsy women is very tran- 
sient. They mature at the age of ten or twelve, 
are in their prime from fifteen to eighteen, are 
old at twenty, and hags at forty, in which condi- 
tion they remain for any length of time, until a 
hundred, I was told, which I can readily believe, 
as I have myself seen Gypsy women who did not 
look to be a day under three hundred! 

We took a pilot the next day for the passage 
of the Moravian Gate, where the Danube finds 
its way between the Alps and Carpathians. Far- 
ther down the river breaks up into a maze of 
branches flowing between a labyrinth of islands 
known as " Schiiteen," which cover an area of 
about six hundred square miles. In such a place 
as this it is not difficult to lose one's way. Be- 
tween Pressburg and Gonyo there have been ex- 
tensive works since 1885 for the maintenance of a 
navigable channel. Very often these consist of 
stone dikes built out into any part of the river for 
the purpose of deflecting the current or keeping the 
greatest force in the channel, and as these dikes 
were sometimes submerged several feet and were 
apt to run straight out from either bank, longi- 

176 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

tudinally, transversely, or diagonally, often in the 
very middle of the stream, it was quick and nervous 
work to locate them in water the whole of which 
was a mass of swirls and eddies. 

We discharged our pilot at Komorn, and the fol- 
lowing day made a run of one hundred and twenty- 
five kilometers to Budapest. Just beyond Komorn 
at Waitzen the Danube makes its big rectangular 
turn to the south and flows away straight down the 
meridian of 19 east for about one hundred and 
sixty miles. We found the current much less swift 
as we entered upon this part of the course, which 
is across the plains of Hungary, and for the first 
time since leaving Regensburg were able to enjoy 
a little relaxation. 

Remembering our social trials in Vienna we ran 
straight through Budapest looking for a good 
berth, then turned and worked back upstream, and 
eventually stopped at the Pannonia Evezos Row- 
ing Club, where we asked permission to tie up. 
This was most readily granted, and the members 
showed us every courtesy, putting us up at the club- 
house and doing everything to make our visit 
agreeable. They were very much interested in our 
trip and gave us abundant information, not all by 
any means reassuring, concerning the journey 

177 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

ahead of us to the Black Sea. One of their crews 
had rowed down to the Sulina mouth of the Dan- 
ube, a distance of about one thousand five hundred 
and seven kilometers, or about nine hundred and 
forty-two miles, the previous year. They told us 
that lower down we would come to reaches of the 
river where if the day were slightly hazy we 
should be able to sight no land, and that as we 
were approaching the change of seasons we ran 
great danger from the violent wind storms which 
broke upon these vast stretches, and were often so 
terrific that big tugs and steamers were compelled 
to run for the nearest shelter. They even went 
so far as to say that they did not think the Beaver 
would live in one of these gales, as the wind blow- 
ing straight up against the current made the wick- 
edest sea imaginable. They also cheered us up by 
warning us with perfect good faith not to land on 
the Bulgarian side except at towns, as the people 
were savage and predatory. However, we had by 
this time grown impervious to warnings. Since 
leaving London we had been warned of the traffic 
dangers on the Thames, the treacherous Estuary, 
the classic perils of the Channel, the appalling 
Mascaret, or bore from Havre, extending fifty- 
four miles up the Seine to Duclair, the traffic dan- 

i 7 8 




13 



179 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

gers of locks and canal tunnels five kilometers long, 
and the current and shoals of the Rhine, and all 
the rest of it. As somebody said: 

" The farther we get, the more dangerous this 
job gets. By the time we reach the Mediterranean 
we shall have formed the habit, and when we get 
back to Paris the driving of a racing car or the 
experimentation of an aeroplane will be a dull and 
monotonous way of passing the time." 

Personally I was beginning to hunger for a lit- 
tle dull monotony ! 

We spent a day and a half in Budapest, then 
accompanied by the good wishes of the rowing club 
made an early start for the run southward across 
the plains of Hungary. 

Below Budapest we found much less current and 
a bigger channel. The Danube had by this time 
received, besides numerous smaller streams, the 
rivers Iller, Lech, Isar, Enns, Raab, on the right 
bank, and on the left bank the Altmuhl, Naab, 
Regen, March, Waag, and Gran, and before we 
reached Belgrade it was also to receive the three 
great rivers, Drave and Save on the right bank, 
and the Theiss on the left. The latter great stream 
rises high up in the Carpathians, where they sep- 
arate Galicia and Hungary, and for the lower part 

180 




" Some of these grim eyries are still in a splendid state 
of preservation.' ' 



181 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

of its course passes through such a flat country that 
a rise of thirteen feet in the Danube causes it to 
flow backward for eighty-seven miles. The Theiss 
is navigable by steamers as far as Tokaj, the Drave 
to the confluence of the Mur, and the Save to Sis- 
sek, at the confluence of the Kulpa. Some of the 
other tributaries, although navigable, are not navi- 
gated by steamers owing to their shifting channels ; 
among these are the Morava, Waag, Gran, Inn, 
and Sio. But it is doubtful if even a swift passen- 
ger steamer could plow up against the swift cur- 
rents of the Waag and the Inn. For the same 
reason none of the branches of the Theiss is ever 
navigated by steamers, although many are navi- 
gable for a long distance. 

As the river broadened the dangers of naviga- 
tion became much less, but the difficulty of keeping 
in the main stream increased, especially in the early 
mornings when the drifting haze obscured the sur- 
face of the water, hiding the channel buoys, which 
occurred at long intervals, and making it impos- 
sible to distinguish islets from the mainland. 

Below Budapest the river flows across a vast and 
widely desolate country. It is claimed by some 
authorities that the plains of Hungary were once 
covered by a great fresh-water lake half as big as 

182 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

the Adriatic Sea, and that this lake was eventually 
drained by its outlet cutting through the Car- 
pathians at the Iron Gate. The broad plains roll 
away to infinite distance, sometimes in a gray, un- 
dulating country, giving pasture to great herds of 
horses or the big, white, wide-horned Hungarian 
cattle. Here and there the smoke from some herd- 
er's hovel rises in gusty swirls ; on the blue horizon 
loom the broken outlines of mountain ranges dim 
with distance. Often the wind comes sweeping 
across these puzstas, heralded by distant clouds, 
striking the water with such violence as to create a 
local disturbance which looks like the commotion 
caused by the current over reefs or shoals. 

When the air is clear one may look far across 
the plain, see the grim, square tower of some an- 
cient Hungarian feudal castle, as it rears bleakly 
from a commanding eminence. For miles the 
banks are fringed in willows, which cover also the 
multitudinous isles and give to the voyager the im- 
pression of passing down through interminable wil- 
low forests. Wild-faced herders, fishermen, and 
river folk are often seen prowling the banks ; they 
are savage-looking creatures, sometimes clad in 
heavy sheepskins, the wool turned inward, with 
kalpaks, or caps of fur, rawhide moccasins, and 

183 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

puttie leggins of the same material. Frequently 
they are Mohammedans, in fez and trek and kaf- 
tan or pelisse, once gaudy of color, now weather- 
worn to a neutral tint. 

On the day of our leaving Budapest we ran well 
until half-past four, when we got a hot bearing, 
due to our own negligence in not filling the oil cups, 
and to avoid all risk we anchored in the river for 
the night. It was a beautiful place, resembling a 
vast lake in the forest. As the twilight deepened 
innumerable water fowl feeding in lakes near by 
came down to the river to sleep. We were lying 
to our ketch anchor in a sheltered cove behind a 
heavily wooded island. Not far away there was 
a sand bar, and this was soon covered with aquatic 
birds of all descriptions, and their conversations 
and complaints continued through the gloaming 
and until after the setting sun had shot its last 
gleams through the tracery of willow branches on 
the western bank, and the full moon looking up 
over the forest sent a pale green pathway shimmer- 
ing across the still water. 

Nothing but the experience of them can convey 
any impression of the wonderful beauty of the 
mornings on the Danube. The dawn comes with 
a crimson glow above a thin blanket of baffling 

184 




u 



185 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

mist. Bird cries from all about : the liquid whistle 
of curlews, and the clear, keen, fifelike notes of 
snipe and plover. Ducks and fish crows talking 
sleepily from some invisible sand bank close 
aboard. The splash of a big fish alongside, then, 
as the sun rises, the mist seems to thicken, and turns 
from silver to gold. Suddenly a vista appears, and 
a glimpse of the river, a dazzling mirror leading 
through a vague, misty effulgence straight to the 
sun, a Jacob's ladder without the steps. Queer 
effects of mirage sometimes obtained, the river 
seeming to lead upward at an angle, or again down- 
ward at a giddy slant. The sun mounts higher; 
mazy paths lead off hither and yon through the 
mist ; the distant shore reveals itself, to be instantly 
blotted out again, but it has given us our bearings, 
and time is valuable, for we must make two hun- 
dred kilometers before the darkness comes again. 
A sweater feels good in the keen air, and a pipe 
tastes better, even with the aromatic odor of the 
coffee and the comforting smell and sizzle of fry- 
ing eggs and bacon. All fresh, vigorous senses of 
life and action strike chords in the:e first few mo- 
ments between sleep and active motion. The smell 
of the fragrant morning air, the torn lace fringes 
of the mysterious night rent in the forward thrust 

1 86 



DOWN THE DANUBE 



of the awakening day. It is the thin line where 
dreams and actions meet. One turns from a con- 
templation of the sun-tinted mist to crank the 




A mediaeval Turkish fortress on the Danube near Uok. 

motor; the fragrance of the river is lost in appetiz- 
ing odors from the frying pan. With a prelim- 
inary shiver one plunges head first into Jacob's lad- 
der to emerge tingling with other sensations than 
those of artistic appreciation.^ Then chug goes 
the motor, the water swirls under the stern, one 
hand forward to get in the anchor, and we are 
slipping off into the dissipating vapor for the 
conquest of another fraction of the interminable 
river. 

The following night we pulled up at Ilok in 
Croatia. In the log book I find only this resentful 
comment on the place : 

" At the hotel we were stung in the bill, which 

187 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

would not have happened if we had been in Hun- 
gary on the other side of the river." 

11 J has Croatia! Vive VHongrie!" We 
touched this one point of Croatia and Slavonia, 
and were swindled for the only time on the Dan- 
ube. What is the result? Croatia will preserve 
always in our minds a tainted memory. For thus 
ever does the traveler receive his impressions ! 

From Belgrade to Sulina the Danube forms a 
part of the northern boundary of that geograph- 
ical division of the European Continent known as 
the Balkan Peninsula. By including the river 
Save, which joins the Danube at Belgrade, as a 
part of this boundary, we have allotted to the Bal- 
kan Peninsula the following countries or " States," 
as they are sometimes called: a part of Croatia 
and Kustendland, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Servia, 
Bulgaria, a part of Roumania, Montenegro, East- 
ern Roumelia, Turkey in Europe, and Greece. 
The term " Balkans " is slipshod and inaccurate, 
and may be taken to mean either the Balkan 
Mountains or the Balkan States, which are prop- 
erly, when spoken of in this way, limited to Servia, 
Bulgaria proper, Turkey in Europe, Montenegro, 
and Greece, with Roumania sometimes included. 
It would seem that the geographical division were 

188 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

a better one, as these countries present such ex- 
treme social, political, and racial differences. 

Many people who are comparatively well trav- 
eled possess but a very vague idea of what is to 
be found in the Balkan Peninsula aside from the 
" trouble " which is usually assumed to exist there, 
and which usually does ! There is a good deal of 
difficulty attached to traveling about the interior 
of this fascinating whirlpool of the races. Greece 
is, of course, well known, but the other countries 
are not. Unless one belongs in fez and kaftan, if 
a man, or yashmak and feridje, if a woman, the 
Mohammedan part of the Peninsula, which in- 
cludes all of Turkey and a great deal of Bulgaria, 
will be found inhospitable and suspicious of the 
stranger. Constantinople and its environs one 
may, of course, visit, because the Sultan cannot 
very well help it, but for the rest of Turkey there 
are no facilities, barring the railroad, which crosses 
it. There are no telephones, no automobiles, no 
speakable languages, no Baedeker. 

It is very unfortunate that there should be such 
difficulty in penetrating so beautiful a country as 
the valley of the Maritza in eastern Roumelia 
and many of the lovely passes and basins of the 
Balkan Mountains. There are a number of good 

189 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

roads and the people are not troublesome, but the 
inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula as a whole 
come of such varied stocks and are so intermingled 
and colonized within neighboring localities that one 
needs a host of unheard-of languages in order to 
get about. The tongues in more common use are 
Turkish, Bulgarian, Roumanian, Greek, Kutzo- 
Wallachian, Serbo-Croatian, which is often incor- 
rectly called Servian and is a very widely spoken 
language, and the Chingeni of the Gypsies. Other 
languages occasionally spoken are the dialects of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Armenian, Georgian, 
Yiddish, Hungarian, Circassian, Polish, and Rus- 
sian. Besides these few mentioned one finds along 
the coast the languages of the Levant, while Ara- 
bic and Persian are affected by the better edu- 
cated Mohammedan element. English is never 
spoken anywhere, even in the larger towns where 
the current language of western Europe would be 
French or German. We were told that no three 
languages would be enough to enable a man 
to travel about without inconvenience in the 
interior. 

The first Balkan country which one reaches in 
going down the Danube is Servia, a kingdom the 
area of which is about one half the size of our 

190 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

new State of Oklahoma. Servia is a country of 
steep hills and mountains often covered with dense 
forests of beech and oak and fir. Some of these 
mountains reach a height of 6,000 to 7,000 feet, 
and the valleys between are rich and fertile, and 
grow maize, which is the principal food staple; 
wheat, which is shipped down the Danube to Su- 
lina ; and also rye, barley, flax, hemp, and excellent 
tobacco. In the northeast and east the slopes are 
planted in vineyards, and we found the native red 
wine very good, although stronger than that of 
France and Germany. In the big forests of the 
west and southwest there are great herds of swine 
and sheep and goats. One of the principal indus- 
tries of the country is plum growing. 

The true Servians, or Serbs, form about ninety 
per cent of the total population and are a Slavic 
people who settled in the country about the middle 
of the seventh century. Until 1389, when con- 
quered by the Osmanli Turks, they were a very 
powerful tribe, disputing the domination of the 
Balkan Peninsula with their neighbors, the Bul- 
garians. Although sullen and treacherous, they 
have always been warlike and patriotic, and dur- 
ing the four hundred years of Turkish tyranny 
there was never a time when they were entirely 

191 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

subjugated and when there was not a guerrilla 
warfare being waged against their oppressors by 
patriotic bands of Servians who came down from 
the inaccessible fastness of the Kopaonik Moun- 
tains. The lonely monastery of Studenica was 
always a headquarters of Servian insurrection. 

The religion of Servia is that of the Greek 
Orthodox Church, and they possess a communistic 
social organization, called the Zadruga, which is 
a purely patriarchal system of holding property 
and dividing labor and the profits thereof. 

Servia, like all the rest of the Peninsula, is rich 
in coal and minerals; but, like Turkey, she is 
jealous of foreign promoters, and there does not 
appear to be any development of these natural 
resources. As a matter of fact, your Servian is a 
good deal of a barbarian, and, unlike the Rou- 
manian, Bulgarian, and Turk, does not impress 
one as being yet quite ripe for the arts of peace. 
By nature he is savage and revengeful, a creature 
of fierce passions, which he has learned how to 
conceal, and not quite civilized, as we understand 
the word. The measures adopted in forming 
their present dynasty and the indifferent acceptance 
of the cold-blooded double murder of the late king 
and queen would sufficiently indicate this. 

192 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

The national music shows the savage and sub- 
dued melancholy which one might expect from the 
history of the nation. It is pitched for the most 
part in minor key, and when not gloomy is apt to 
be frenzied and barbaric. The " hora," the na- 
tional dance, is wild and passionate. We could 
not learn that Servia had produced anything of 
art or literature, and the language is still written 
in Cyrillian characters, a calligraphy invented and 
taught by St. Cyril, the " apostle of the Slavs," 
who died in 869. 

Belgrade, the capital city, has had a sanguinary 
history, having withstood seven hard sieges. This 
" white city," as its name Bielgorod signifies, oc- 
cupies a strongly strategic position on a high bluff 
at the angle formed by the Save and Danube. 
Until the end of the eleventh century it was held 
by the Byzantine emperors. After being con- 
stantly fought over by Greeks, Bulgarians, Ser- 
vians, and Turks, it became, in the middle of the 
fifteenth century, the bone of contention between 
Turks and Hungarians, and during the following 
four hundred years was continually changing 
hands. The most famous siege was the storming 
of Belgrade, and its capture by the Hungarians 
under Hunyadi Janos and Capistrano in 1456. 

193 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

Another important battle was that of August 16, 
1717, when Prince Eugene, besieging Belgrade, 
gained a victory over a relieving army of 200,000 
Turks, upon which the city capitulated. In 1862 
it was made the capital of the Servian kingdom, 
and was evacuated by the Turks in 1867. 

Next to Belgrade in size and importance is the 
town of Nissa, where the Emperor Constantine the 
Great was born 272 a.d. 

Approaching Belgrade we saw a curious sight. 
The banks were very high and bare ; behind them 
appeared to be tumbling hills almost destitute of 
vegetation. Looking shoreward we saw what 
seemed to be a black ball rolling with incredible 
swiftness down a steep fissure in the bluff. An- 
other followed it; two more; a dozen, a score, a 
hundred, then a multitude of these black rolling 
objects pouring endlessly down the gully and across 
the beach to the water, where they collected in solid 
masses. But still they came, like marbles rolling 
down a trough, and it was not until we had got 
our glasses on them that we discovered them to be 
thousands of black pigs coming down to drink. 
Hot on their heels came a like number of 
gray, fluffy balls, which proved to be sheep. 
They did not mix with the pigs, and I noticed 

194 



DOWN THE DANUBE 



that they were careful to get upstream of 
them. 

This reminds me of another incident which oc- 
curred farther down the river. As we were plow- 
ing along we saw two men in a boat some distance 
ahead, who appeared to be in a mass of debris 




"We found the whole Danube to be an aviary of water 
fowl.'' 

which stretched almost from bank to bank. As 
we drew near we were puzzled to make out what 
the stuff was. Hundreds of polished stakes pro- 
jected from the surface of the water and seemed to 
be drifting slowly toward the bank. Coming closer 
we saw that it was a big herd of Hungarian cattle 
changing pasture by swimming from one bank to 
the other, and what had puzzled us were the horns, 
14 195 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

which, until we were quite close, were all that were 
visible. 

While speaking of animals I might mention the 
birds. We found the whole Danube to be an 
aviary of water fowl. Near Regensburg the 
marshes were covered with plover, and there were 
a great many different varieties of ducks which con- 
tinued all the way down the river. We also saw a 
great many of the big sickle-billed curlew, wild 
geese, occasionally wild swans, and snipe of many 
varieties. In the lower Danube we would some- 
times see flocks of from five to twenty big, long- 
legged, short-billed birds, which from a distance 
resembled cassowaries, but which I made out 
through the glass as the European bustard. In the 
marshes approaching Sulina there were a great 
many pelicans. Sea gulls fly straight across Eu- 
rope from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. 
We saw the great gray gull and the small tern in 
the Seine, the Marne, the Rhine, the Main, and 
the whole length of the Danube. As the head wa- 
ters of the Rhine and Danube rise almost together 
in the vicinity of Lake Constance, I have no doubt 
that the gulls fly up one water way and down the 
other. Sometimes in going down the Danube we 
would come upon great sand bars of an area of 

196 



DOWN THE DANUBE 

several acres, where it did not look as if one could 
step without trampling some sort of water fowl. I 
have never seen such quantities anywhere with the 
exception of Lake Menzaleh in Egypt. I did not 
see any flamingoes on the Danube, but thought 
once or twice that I saw ibis. 




CHAPTER XI 

TO THE SEA 

|T happened to be the king's birthday 
when we arrived in Belgrade, and, 
while we were there, there happened 
to be a very magnificent funeral. If 
one remembers, this monarch's acces- 
sion to power was the occasion of a not very mag- 
nificent double murder. Servians with whom we 
discussed the tragic assassination of the former 
king and queen were inclined to merely shrug and 
say that, after all, that had proved to be the best 
way out of a bad business. Beyond Budapest, 
where East is supposed to meet West, one finds 
the usual Oriental lack of veneration for human 
life as such. Your Mohammedan will be much 
more ready to kill his brother if circumstances 
seem to justify it, than he will be to kill a cat 
or dog. 

Belgrade is situated on the top of a hill, and 
from the fortress one gets a magnificent view 

198 




"A series of precipitous rocky gorges." 
199 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

across the lower Hungarian plain and of the Save, 
which enters the Danube here. For the next sixty 
miles before entering Roumania, at the Iron Gate, 
the Danube flows through a series of precipitous, 
rocky gorges with the Servian highlands on the 
right and the Transylvanian Alps, a part of the 
Carpathian system, on the left. The first great 
defile begins at Golubatz and reaches almost to 
Dobra. We had wired from Orsova for a pilot, 
and on leaving Belgrade ran down alone to Alt 
Moldova, where we spent the night. At this place 
we made the acquaintance of the school-teacher, 
who treated us very kindly, and gave us a great 
deal of useful information. It was odd to find 
tucked away in this wild recess of the mountains a 
man of such intelligence and education as our 
friend; also it was pathetic, especially when we told 
him we were bound for Constantinople, and he 
said with a sigh : 

" To think that you have come from London 
and are going to Constantinople, and appear to 
treat it as nothing out of the ordinary. Do you 
know that it has been the dream of my life to see 
Budapest! " And we were only four days' run 
from Budapest! 

Our friend the school-teacher told us that there 
200 



TO THE SEA 

was a pilot in the next room, and a few minutes 
later excused himself and returned with a crisp, 
confidence - inspiring Hungarian, properly uni- 
formed and certificated. He told us that our hav- 
ing engaged a pilot at Orsova would make no dif- 
ference, as they all belonged to the same company, 




The Iron Gate. 



and that he would take us down the Kazan-Klause 
and through the Iron Gate. Accordingly he came 
aboard the next morning, and we started. The 
pilot whom we had engaged was waiting for us at 
Drenkova, so we stopped to pick him up and took 
him on as a passenger. The two pilots were so 
pleased with the Beaver, and the beautiful delicacy 
with which she handled, that they squabbled all the 

201 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

way like two schoolboys in regard to whose turn 
it was to steer. 

At Drenkova the Danube enters the second or 
Greben defile, the Upper Klisura, immediately aft- 
er which one enters the rapids of Izlas, the Lesser 
Iron Gate (Gornje Demir Kapu), formed by the 
reefs of Tachtalia and Izlas, and quite distinct 
from the true Iron Gate below Orsova. After this 
Lesser Iron Gate comes the marvelously magnifi- 
cent gorge of the Kasan-Klause or Lower Klisura. 
Several kilometers beyond, at Old Orsova, comes 
the rock-ribbed passage generally known as the 
Iron Gate. 

This stretch of the Danube from Belgrade to 
Turnu-Severinu is traversed by passenger steamers, 
and is without doubt the grandest spectacle of its 
kind which Europe has to offer. The great Dan- 
ube is in places constricted to what did not look to 
be more than a hundred meters in width, of un- 
sounded depths, and sluiced between lofty pre- 
cipitous walls of granite and Jurassic limestone. 
One passes successively from swift-winding defiles 
into silent basins hemmed in by the great Car- 
pathians, and from which no outlet is visible. 

Running rapids in a motor boat is great sport, 
as in addition to the speed of the current one keeps 

202 



TO THE SEA 

the motor going " top notch," so as to have the 
quickest response to the helm. Glancing down at 
the water we seem to be at our normal speed, but a 
look at the precipitous mountain side shows us to 
be flying. 

Presently, driving full at a sheer rocky rampart, 




"Lofty, precipitous walls of granite.'' 

there appears a narrow fissure and a glimpse of 
white, tumbling waters at which the boat is dash- 
ing full speed. 

" The gentleman up forward had better hold 
tight," says the pilot. " It is also possible that he 
may get wet." 

' The gentleman up forward " has seen the 
broken water and needs no advice. The Beaver is 

203 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

caught in the suck, rushes forward with giddying 
speed, her high, sea-going bows plunge into the 
stationary waves, a back swash from the rocky 
rampart spins her head, the pilot catches her with 
the wheel, back comes the eddy from the other 
bank, and the " gentleman up forward " grips the 
samson post and thinks of the defective steering 
gear which has already parted so many times, and 
is destined to part once more. The towering rocky 
walls, with their deep, gloomy caverns, mount 
straight from the stream, cut off the vivid daylight, 
and fill the place with the subdued tints of twi- 
light. Then suddenly a broad vista opens ahead, 
and we shoot out into another sheltered lake of 
wild and romantic beauty. 

Just above the Iron Gate, opposite an island in 
the river, which oddly enough is still occupied by 
a Turkish garrison, although tucked away between 
Servia and Roumania, there is a signal station 
warning vessels when to make the passage of the 
Iron Gate. The cataract itself tumbles over a 
rocky ledge of jagged, saw-tooth points, extending 
for about a mile, and which formerly could only 
be crossed when the river was high. Now, how- 
ever, there is a sluice built between stone walls, 
through which one passes swiftly but in safety, 

204 



TO THE SEA 

and down which we coasted with a sensation of 
" shooting the chutes." 

Throughout the whole length of the series of 
gorges through which we passed we saw traces on 
the right bank of the causeway built by the Em- 
peror Trajan, whose epoch was from 98 to 117 
A.D. In certain places the limestone was hewn 
out of the sheer cliff; in others, where the forma- 
tion was of granite, there were deep, square holes 
sunk at regular intervals in the face of the rock, 
evidently to support timbers along which the cause- 
way was built. As the road preserved a regular 
elevation of about ten feet above the river, and had 
been built on the side where the walls were more 
regular and the water deeper, it looked as if it had 
been intended for a towpath rather than a cause- 
way. There is also a Trajan memorial cut in the 
face of the rock near Orsova. 

At Turnu-Severinu we discharged our pilot, the 
last we had on the Danube, finishing the run of 
about four hundred and seventy-two miles to Su- 
lina under our own direction. For the most part 
this was not difficult, as the channel from the Iron 
Gate to the mouth is well buoyed with black and 
red cans, which one follows as at sea. But from 
now on the country was very wild and desolate, 

205 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

with towns and villages few and far between, and 
great reaches more like the sea than a river. Also 
we encountered daily morning mists in which one 
was for a time quite lost, and it was necessary to 
keep the lead going constantly, as shoals were apt 
to be found in any part of the stream. At about 
ten of the morning the mists would blow away and 
the wind come up the river with great violence. I 
remember one morning when, on taking a short 
nap in the cabin, I awakened to find the boat jump- 
ing almost clean out of the water and throwing the 
spray clear over the cabin house. There were some 
days when the wind, sweeping down the river, 
would knock up a sea which delayed us consider- 
ably. Being behind our schedule we would not 
make our day's destination any particular place, 
but would plow ahead as long as the daylight held, 
and then edge into the bank and drop anchor in 
some secluded little bight among the islands, where 
we should have shelter from any quick, violent 
blow, a necessary precaution, as there is no holding 
ground anywhere. 

These were delightful days, as we were not un- 
der constant strain, and had time to attend to some 
of the little details of cruising life, such as laundry, 
mending clothes, writing letters, developing photo- 

206 




207 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

graphs, and the like. We stopped for supplies 
at different towns, Palanka, Ostrovie-Battu, and 
places without names which we could spell or pro- 
nounce. It is difficult for an Anglo-Saxon to con- 
vey the name of the village, such as " Srnktzvl," 
but there were several which sounded like that, or 
worse. 

Fortunately we were after the mosquito season, 
and never had use for our elaborate system of nets, 
or, better yet, our quinine. All of this part of the 
Danube is terribly fever-ridden, and the inhabit- 
ants show it in their appearance. 

Here is the log of one day verbatim : 
" Head of Ostroviel Strimbu Mare. Saturday, 
September 14th. Clear. Heavy mist over water. 
Advanced the time fifty-five minutes after Olte- 
nitza. Fetched by Giorgivu, and stopped at In- 
trakan (Bulgaria) to buy stores. Could not make 
ourselves understood, and they would not take 
Austrian money. Finally got hold of the Hun- 
garian Company's steamship agent (who spoke 
French), and he kindly changed our money, and 
also accompanied Abe and Hank to make various 
purchases. Ran until dark. Charming evening, 
and we have had a most delightful day. We are 
muchly cheered by a most delightful smell coming 

208 



TO THE SEA 

from the stew pot on the stove. After dinner a 
tow came plunking upstream, slowed down for the 
shoal, passed just above us, kept their lead going, 
and crawled slowly ahead. 

Remarks : 
5.40. Got the anchor. 
7.30. Rutchschuk. 

12.20. Intrakan. 

12.35. Oltenitza. 
7.00. Let go under head of island. 

Distance. 210 kilometers." 
By this time we were well known on the river. 
Steamers going both ways had reported us, and 
everywhere we met with the kindest and most hos- 
pitable treatment imaginable. The swift passen- 
ger steamers would give us a friendly dip of the 
ensign in passing, and in crossing from one coun- 
try into the next we had no difficulty nor delay. 
Our passports had been vised for Roumania, Bul- 
garia, and Turkey, which was all that was neces- 
sary, as the other countries do not require them, 
and we did not need to enter Russia. As for lan- 
guages, we had command of French, English, Ger- 
man, Spanish, and Italian. French and German 
alone will carry one from Havre to Constantino- 
ple, on our route, but a mere smattering would not 

209 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

do. Both must be spoken and understood thor- 
oughly, as it is often necessary to converse with 
people who speak them poorly, in argot or with a 
strong foreign accent. English is quite valueless. 
One never hears nor has occasion to speak it. As 
far as I could discover, it is the only European 
language not spoken on the Balkan Peninsula. 

In this lower part of the Danube we found little 
or no current, and the wind, as in most rivers, 
blowing directly up and down, never across, fol- 
lowing the stream in all of its windings. The local 
traffic takes advantage of this fact, and we passed 
fleets of great lumbering vessels, which reminded 
me strongly of some of the light-draught junks I 
had seen upon the rivers in China. They never 
tacked, but waited for a fair wind. The breeze 
was usually up the river in the morning and down- 
stream in the afternoon. These vessels were of 
nondescript rig, often two-masted, setting courses, 
topsails and topgallant sails on the main and a 
fore-and-aft sail on the mizzen; some carried head 
sails. Before a fresh breeze they would boom 
along like great bowls, making good speed. Their 
crews were a savage-looking gang of pirates, Mo- 
hammedans mostly, if one were to judge by the 
fez and terk or turban bound around it. The 

210 



TO THE SEA 



helmsman, standing on the high poop with the 
long tiller between his knees, was a picturesque fig- 
ure, as were they all, but if we had anchored among 
a fleet of these vessels I am inclined to think that 
an anchor watch would have been kept all night. 




"Fleets of great lumbering vessels." 

Dan, our motor, had done noble work on the 
Danube, and during the fifteen hundred miles' run 
from Regensburg to Sulina never once stopped. 
He pounded along hour in and hour out, strongly 
and cheerfully, starting always at the first heave 
on the crank, and needing no care beyond that re- 
15 211 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

quired by any motor. We had fed him American 
oil at first, then a very good American oil refined 
in France and Germany, and later a nasty brown 
Roumanian product, which apparently he liked bet- 
ter than any diet so far. Later on he got the best- 
looking oil of all, the Russian oil from Batoum, 
which, strangely enough, he seemed to find too 
anaemic, but then Dan was a husky, sea-going, 
Danish brute, and he liked a strong, sea-going diet. 
Sometimes we forgot to oil him, but it made no 
difference; he hammered along just the same, and 
then, if we still neglected him, would warn us of 
our carelessness by beginning to growl and swear. 
He would run hot or cool, wet or dry, with the 
propeller in the water or buried in a cobble bank; 
it really made no difference to him, and never 
seemed to hurt anything. Dan was put together 
to stand just the sort of a racket which we gave 
him, and he was as economical as a French femme 
de menage. The price of his fuel did not vary 
much, and the actual daily cost of running the 
motor, fuel, lubricating oil, and all, was about 
forty cents per hour. 

Off Arriavoda, which is where the railroad from 
Kustendje crosses the Danube after following 
Trajan's wall, which runs from the Danube to the 

212 




mos^qfm//,^ 



"A sailing vessel of the lower Danube.' ' 

Black Sea, Dan stopped for the first time without 
orders, but it was not his fault, as the tanks had 
run dry. We stopped under the railroad bridge, 
which is, we are told, the highest or longest, I for- 

213 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

get which, in Europe, and filled the tanks from our 
extra supply, and went on to Braila, which we 
reached at six of the evening. 

On approaching Braila, which is the great wheat 
port of Roumania and second only in importance 
to Odessa, we came upon hundreds of fine iron 
grain barges, and a little later sighted the ship- 
ping. 

The kingdom of Roumania has an area about 
equal to that of the State of New York. If we 
are to take the Danube as the northern geograph- 
ical boundary of the Balkan Peninsula, only a 
small part of Roumania would be included in this 
division, but this country is usually thought of in 
connection with the " Balkan States." 

Roumania impresses one as an exceedingly prom- 
ising country. The bulk of it lies in fertile plains 
under extensive cultivation and producing splendid 
crops of wheat and maize, which, we were told, 
was of a grade superior to the Russian cereal. 
Bordering the river there stretched great prairies 
of pasture land, where we saw herds of the mag- 
nificent big, white native cattle. To the north, on 
the slopes of the Carpathians and Transylvanian 
Alps, there are splendid forests where extensive 
lumber operations are carried on under the Ger- 

214 



TO THE SEA 

man system of forestry, by which the replanting 
keeps pace with the felling of trees. Roumania 
is also very rich in minerals and produces a petro- 
leum of a high grade of combustion. It is a pe- 
culiar oil of an old-gold color, and we had been 
told to avoid it, as it was of inferior quality; but, 
whatever its qualities under analysis, we got better 
results with it in our motor than any fuel which 
we used on the entire trip — far better than from 
the Russian oil which we used later. 

One does not hesitate to predict a very bright 
future for Roumania, as, besides its great natural 
resources, the country is extremely well governed 
and very fortunate in its topography. On the 
north and west it is protected by high mountain 
ranges, and its southern and eastern borders enjoy 
the advantage of about 300 miles of a magnificent 
river, navigable and full of fish. The country has 
two good ports on the Black Sea, Sulina and 
Kustendje. Along the coast there are extensive 
sturgeon fisheries. 

The Roumanians claim their descent from the 
colonists of the Emperor Trajan, who conquered 
the country about 105 A.D., but it is more prob- 
able that they did not become a Roumanian peo- 
ple until the thirteenth century. Their language 

215 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

is a Latin tongue, similar to Spanish and Italian, 
and one third of their vocabulary consists of Slavic 
and Turkish words. They use the Latin charac- 
ters instead of Russian and Cyrillian, like their 
neighbors. Speaking of Latin tongues, it is inter- 
esting to note that until about thirty years ago 
there was a dialect, which was almost pure Latin, 
spoken by a tribe of people in northwestern Bul- 
garia. 

The Roumanians are very good-looking people, 
with soft olive skins, beautiful eyes, and a pleas- 
ing, agreeable expression, in which they distinctly 
differ from the sullen-faced Servians. In disposi- 
tion they suggest the Italian more than any other 
race that I can think of, being light-hearted, pas- 
sionate, and pleasure-loving. They do not appear 
to be much in evidence in trade, nor do I fancy 
that their talents lie in business capacity. Indeed, 
the bulk of the commerce of Roumania appears 
to be in the hands of foreigners. 

We were greatly surprised to find a city of such 
importance, of which we had previously heard so 
little. I have never seen as many different national 
ensigns so intermingled in any port of the world, 
except Constantinople. Port Said and Singapore 
are lonely compared to it. The only flag I could 

216 



TO THE SEA 

think of which I did not see was our own, and con- 
sequently it was regarded with a great deal of curi- 
osity as we picked our way between the anchored 
flotillas of barges and steamers. 

Close inshore we sighted a flag bearing the name 
11 Istrul Rowing Club," and remembering our 
kindly reception at Pest headed over for it. On 
working alongside we saw several oarsmen in 
rowing clothes about to put a shell in the water. 
Ranney, who was up forward, hailed one of these, 
asking if we might make a berth alongside their 
boathouse. 

A well-built, fair-haired young fellow looked at 
us in surprise. 

"Certainly," said he. " But where in the world 
are you from? " 

" London," said Ranney. 

The young man smiled. 

" No, really," said he, " joking aside, where are 
you from? " 

" I am not joking," said Ranney. " We started 
from London, and we are bound for Paris via Con- 
stantinople and the Mediterranean." 

The young man, who was a Dane, looked po- 
litely bored. 

" But I really am curious to know where you 
217 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

come from," said he. " Such a boat as that is un- 
usual here." 

Ranney showed signs of irritation. 

" I tell you we are from London," said he. "I 
can't tell you any more. We have come straight 
across Europe." 

When it became apparent that we were quite 
serious there was great excitement. The members 
all flocked down and took charge of us in a body. 
They detailed a special caretaker for the boat and 
carried us up to the Braila Club, a magnificent 
building, beautifully furnished. That evening they 
gave us a dinner, afterwards taking us for a drive 
out to the Casino, later to the theater, and still 
later they gave us a supper and reception to which 
some of the artistes whose performance we had 
previously enjoyed were invited. The party broke 
up at about four o'clock in the morning at the boat- 
house, where certain speeches were made, toasts 
given and responded to, and, declining the hospi- 
tality of the clubhouse, we went to our bunks, feel- 
ing for the first time the somewhat restricted di- 
mensions of the cabin. 

Our entertainers represented several nationali- 
ties; there were in the party French, German, 
Italian, Roumanian, and Danish. All of them 

218 



TO THE SEA 

were strenuous business men, for Braila is purely a 
commercial city, and most of them were the man- 
aging heads of various big industries, milling, 
shipping, railroad, telegraph, exporting, etc. In its 
prosperous season Braila draws about it the usual 
parasites of abundant, quickly acquired gold, and 
the theaters and casinos and plazas are gay with 
the most cosmopolitan crowd of Europe, while 
enormous sums change hands nightly over the 
gaming tables in the club. 

The following night we gave a dinner to our 
thirteen entertainers, and the next morning got an 
early start to run the remaining one hundred and 
seventy kilometers to Sulina, at the mouth of the 
Danube. Before we had gone far the mist closed 
down thickly, and for a while it was nervous navi- 
gation, as there was a steady stream of traffic; 
tows, passenger steamers, and ocean tramp steam- 
ers, and the noise of our motor made it impos- 
sible for us to hear bells and whistles. After 
picking our way cautiously for an hour or so the 
fog blew off. 

Late in the afternoon the river, now very small, 
as we had left the main stream for the narrow cut 
which debouches at Sulina, entered a flat, marshy 
country, and here, climbing on the top of the cabin 

219 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

house, I looked across the wild morass and saw the 
darkening waters of the Black Sea. 

Delayed as we were by the fog, the night over- 
took us before we reached Sulina, but there was no 
place to pull up, so we lighted our sailing lights 
and held on. It was very dark when we arrived 
at the port, and we had some difficulty in picking 
our way down the crowded quays and finding a 
berth. Eventually we pulled up at a government 
landing, where not only were we given permission 
to lie, but the local authorities even kindly detailed 
a special policeman to guard the boat during our 
visit. This was very fortunate, as Sulina is one of 
the most cosmopolitan ports of the world, and al- 
ways crowded with vessels of every nationality. 
The water front is one continuous quay, and the 
street running parallel, and removed only the width 
of one row of shallow buildings, is for about half 
a mile an unbroken line of sailor resorts, dance 
halls, cafes, theaters, crimp boarding houses, and 
worse. In spite of all this, the town is orderly and 
well behaved. 

We tied up and went below to put on " shore 
clothes," thankful at having finished for many 
weeks with the interminable rivers and canals of 
Europe. But a casual visitor, when told that we 

220 



TO THE SEA 

were bound across the Black Sea for Constantino- 
ple, remarked: 

" Too bad you're so late. The season is chang- 
ing now; we're due to get an equinoctial gale most 
any day, and the Lord help you if you get caught 
in a blow in that thing out in the Black Sea." 




CHAPTER XII 

FROM SULINA 

|HEN the " floating population " of 
Sulina, chiefly composed of seafar- 
ing folk, learned that we had come 
" 'cross country " from London in the 
Beaver, and were bound across the 
Black Sea to Constantinople, we became the object 
of much friendly remonstrance. They told us that 
ours was a good sporting proposition for the sum- 
mer season, but that we had arrived a month too 
late. It was then the 18th of September; the equi- 
noctial gales were due any day, and with them the 
seasons changed, and unsettled conditions might be 
expected thereafter. A thirty-five-foot motor boat 
all open abaft the cabin house would not last in a 
Black Sea gale as long as the proverbial snowball 
in the infernal regions; we had no sail, and, if the 
motor balked, would drift around indefinitely until 
we foundered in a gale, were taken off by some 
passing vessel, or drove ashore to be broken up on 
the reefs which fringed the greater part of the 

222 



FROM SULINA 

coast of the Black Sea. All of this we knew to be 
true enough from our own nautical knowledge and 
a study of the sailing directions. 

It was freely intimated, and has been since, that 
we were rash and inexperienced. This is not true. 
Both Pomeroy and I had a full store of sea-going 
experience in many different types of vessels, large 
and small. Among my own comparatively recent 
reminiscences I could recall a hurricane weathered 
out in Campeche Bay off the coast of Yucatan in 
a small thirty-ton schooner hove to for three doubt- 
ful days, and eventually driven on a lee shore from 
which we worked off with great difficulty; also a 
typhoon in the China Sea, much sloppy weather in 
the Pacific, and a westerly gale on a schooner yacht 
in mid-Atlantic. There were besides the usual 
number of minor incidents, such as so many of us 
have been through who have spent a number of 
seasons in knocking up and down the New Eng- 
land coast in small cruising boats. Pomeroy had 
once bought a big English yawl in which he had 
cruised around the West Indies, and had also a 
considerable yachting experience in the Mediter- 
ranean. Therefore, it can hardly be said that we 
did not know what we were attempting. People 
who go down to the sea in big ships very often do 

223 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

not actually know what good weather a small boat 
can make of ah ugly sea if properly handled. 
Ships' officers themselves have sometimes said to 
me, pointing over the side when there was a bit 
of sea on:" What would your little sloop be doing 
out there now?" And when I answered: "She 
would be making very much less fuss over it than 
this tub of yours! " they would look at me with 
disdain as one who knew not whereof he spoke, 
while I knew very well that I had been out in much 
worse weather in some snug little boat without suf- 
fering from any anxiety. 

No, there was nothing foolhardy in our attempt. 
We were exposing ourselves to a certain amount of 
danger, no doubt, but not unwarrantably. Our 
longest run without a port was only one hundred 
and twenty-one miles, and the shortest fifty-six. 
The Beaver was a splendid sea boat, full bilged 
under water, buoyant and capable, and we had 
traveled for the last two thousand miles without 
being obliged to stop the motor. Since leaving 
London we had experienced a great many peculiar 
and unanticipated dangers, in the Channel, the 
Seine, and Danube, and we decided that there 
were, no doubt, a good many more ahead of us in 
the Black Sea and Mediterranean, all of which 

224 



FROM SULINA 

were unavoidable details of our somewhat original 
undertaking to cross and circumnavigate Europe in 
a thirty-five-foot motor boat. The Beaver would 
have to take her chances with the old Euxine and 




Shifting propeller blades at Sulina. 



its " hacking waves " just as she would later, after 
passing out of the Dardanelles, have to do her 
best with " Levanters," mistral, bora, sirocco, and 
leveche. 

225 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

We were fortunate in finding a friend in Sulina. 
This was Mr. Kuhl, the Chief Engineer of the 
European Commission for the Navigation of the 
Danube, with whom Pomeroy was personally ac- 
quainted. Mr. Kuhl's courageous years of war- 
fare against the combined forces of the Danube 
and the Black Sea in keeping the Sulina Channel 
navigable is very meritorious. We spent an even- 
ing at his house, where he showed us in a series of 
charts the results, and lack of them, of his many 
years of constant struggle with the great stream, 
all of which was particularly interesting to me, as 
only eighteen months previously I had made a 
study of somewhat similar hydraulic problems at 
Panama. " Some years I win," said Mr. Kuhl, 
throwing out his hands, " sometimes it is the river! 
I make promises, and the Danube breaks them for 
me, and then the steamship captains swear! " He 
gave a short laugh. " The Danube flings mud into 
the Channel, and I scoop it out and build a dike, 
and make the Danube keep it out. Then the lit- 
toral of the Black Sea sweeps it in again, and I 
make the Black Sea take it away. But this has 
disturbed the balance, and look ! Here is the river 
filling up the Channel in a single flood, and before 
I can quell this mutiny there is another somewhere 

226 



FROM SULINA 

else. Sometimes it has happened that the water 
has taken charge and flung mud all over the place, 
and then the steamship captains fling it at the Com- 
mission, and they want to know why there is not 
the thirty feet of water which I promised." He 
laughed. 

It is certainly a man's work, the mastery of such 
a stream. Mr. Kuhl is about to retire, and I hope 
that the Commission will get as strong a man to 
fill his place. They cannot get a stronger. 

We lay for two days in Sulina, taking fuel and 
provisions and getting ready for sea. Mr. Kuhl 
very kindly rendered us every assistance and had 
the boat lifted out under the crane of the Com- 
mission's yard, where his machinists shipped our 
spare propeller blades, the old ones which had 
brought us through several thousand kilometers 
of river and canals being somewhat scored around 
the edges. Thanks to the splendid material and 
construction of the boat and her fine big American 
elm keel the many bumps which we had given her 
were scarcely perceptible, but we found a very dan- 
gerous state of affairs about the steering gear and 
one which we did not care to think about in con- 
nection with our run through the rapids of the 
Grein and above the Iron Gate, for the lag-screws 
16 227 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

holding the iron shoe which took the rudder post 
had worked loose and were on the point of drop- 
ping out, thus leaving the rudder all adrift and 
the propeller blades unprotected. This was soon 
remedied, after which we took fuel, a very fine 
Russian oil from Batoum. We had already taken 
three hundred and sixty liters of petroleum at 
thirty cents a liter, but as Mr. Kuhl very kindly 
let us have the same oil at the wholesale rate paid 
by the Commission we took advantage of this op- 
portunity and loaded all that we could carry, pav- 
ing the whole cockpit, engine room and cabin with 
tins, over which we laid planks to move about on. 
This was of additional advantage in furnishing us 
with good ballast, as the boat was too light for 
open sea, and we should otherwise have had to 
take on stone or scrap-iron ballast. 

We were two days fitting out in Sulina, which 
time was not lost, as the weather was unsettled and 
it was blowing hard outside. From the point of 
land on which Mr. KuhPs house stood we could 
see a wicked chop dashing over the breakwater, 
and a short, steep, combing sea running farther out. 
We did not object to the delay, as we were in the 
midst of the most unsettled season, and a day or 
two lost did not matter. Sulina is a wheat port; 

228 



FROM SULINA 

there were a great many vessels loading grain, and 
the place was full of color and animation. We 
took our meals in a little restaurant frequented by 
the captains of tramp steamers — British, German, 
Austrian, Greek, Italian, Russian, all nationalities 
in fact — and among these we made a number of 
friends. The captain of a British tramp, the Anna 
Moore, said one evening : 

" Our agent was asking about you chaps to- 
day. When I told him you were going to Con- 
stant in that little motor boat he said : ' Are they 
crazy?' 'No,' said I. 'They're Anglo-Saxons.' 
' But they ought not to be allowed to go ! ' says 
he. ' They'll get drowned! ' " 

We asked him if that was his opinion, and he 
looked rather grave. 

" No," said he. " That's a good sea boat of 
yours and she ought to make it unless you catch 
bad luck. It's about two hundred and sixty-five 
miles to the Bosporus on a straight course. The 
lightship is fourteen miles off shore. Are you go- 
ing to lay a course straight across or follow the 
beach around? " 

We told him that it would depend on the 
weather and how the motor appeared to be run- 
ning. 

229 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

"If you follow the coast," said he, " you have 
got a run of eighty miles to Kustendje, then eighty 
miles to Varna, fifty-six miles to Bourgas, and one 
hundred and twenty-one miles to the Bosporus. 
It's longer, but it's safer. You ought to have some 
sail on that thing." 

" Suppose we get a steady glass and good wind 
and sky?" ^ve asked. "Why not make a run 
direct?" 

He shook his head. 

11 This is the Black Sea, and it's not like any- 
thing else. Your glass is no good to you at all. You 
might have it steady as if it was nailed and the sky 
without a cloud and a calm sea. First thing you 
know you'd see a dark streak to the northward. 
Then look out ! She's coming down off the 
Steppes of Russia — a cold slant, and when she 
hits she'll tear things loose. Have you got a 
sea anchor? " 

We told him that we had not, but thought that 
we could rig one with the sampan and our anchor. 
I had done this trick before. 

He nodded. 

" That boat of yours ought to live through most 
anything if you can keep her head to sea," he said. 
"What's your speed? " 

230 



FROM SULINA 

" It's supposed to be ten land miles, but it's 
nearer eight." 

He nodded thoughtfully. 

11 Well, you may just slip in between blows and 
get it smooth all the way. But if I were to advise 
you it would be to leave your boat here and come 
out next summer to finish your trip." 

That was the advice we got from everybody, 
but while we appreciated its value we did not care 
to follow it, knowing that for many personal rea- 
sons if we abandoned our voyage at this time it 
would be doubtful if we ever finished it. 

The boat was all ready the afternoon of the 19th 
of September, and Pomeroy and I went over to 
the yard to bring her across to our former berth, 
intending to start as soon as the weather mod- 
erated. It had been raining and blowing, and 
there was still a good deal of sea running. As 
soon as we had started the engine Pomeroy sug- 
gested that we poke around outside and look it 
over. We slipped down and headed out through 
the breakwater, dipping our ensign to a Rouma- 
nian man-of-war coming in out of the blow and 
receiving a return salutation. Once outside we 
found crazy water due to the hard breeze striking 
across the eddy made by the river current, but we 

231 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

were both delighted by the behavior of the boat 
in her deep trim. Throwing in the full strength 
of the motor we slammed her full bore into and 
across the ugly rip, through which she went like 
a trawler, throwing the water freely but perfectly 
dry. 

" We shall not strike it anywhere worse than it 
is right here on the bar, with this breeze," said 
Pomeroy. 

I quite agreed with him, and we decided to start 
some time during the night. Running back to our 
berth we proceeded to take water, after which we 
got our papers, and said good-by to our friends, in 
the expectation of leaving before midnight. But 
a little later there came a big black cloud bank in 
the north and it began to blow very hard with a 
cold rain. 

By six o'clock in the morning it was still blow- 
ing fresh, but the clouds had cleared off and we 
decided to start, so heating Dan up we ran 
out through the breakwater, and at seven-thirty 
rounded the whistling buoy and laid a course for 
another buoy a couple of miles off shore. Mr. 
Kuhl had warned us to take a big offing as the 
sturgeon fishers lay a meshwork of set lines from 
long trawls all the way from the Sulina Mouth 

232 



FROM SULINA 

for about thirty miles along the shoal to St. 
George's Mouth, and it would have been a very 
serious thing to have whipped up one of these in 
out propeller. 

On passing out from the breakwater we struck 
a choppy, combing sea, the heavy spray from which 
gave us a good wetting until we had got off on our 
course, when we took it astern and it ceased to 
trouble us. 

The Black Sea is almost fresh, receiving as it 
does the Danube, the Dnieper, the Don, and the 
Irmak, and of smaller rivers the Dniester, Bug, 
Kuban, and innumerable others. As a result a 
fresh breeze quickly produces a short, choppy, 
lashing sea, which in many places is aggravated by 
the presence of strong currents, especially along the 
course which we were taking, where the flow of 
the three great rivers forms eddies on its way to 
the entrance of the Bosporus. The terrific com- 
motion caused thereby in a sudden sharp blow 
gives rise to what are referred to in the sailing di- 
rections as the terrible " hacking waves " of the 
Black Sea. 

But the weather, which had at first looked 
threatening, speedily became glorious. The wind 
subsided and with it the swell, until by noon we 

233 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

were plowing along in a glassy sea helped on our 
course by smooth rollers. In spite of our precau- 
tions in taking a good offing of five or six miles 
we several times got among the sturgeon fishers' 
trawls, but fortunately slid over the set lines with- 
out picking any of them up. At ten-five o'clock we 
passed the first beacon off St. George's Mouth, 
and a little later slightly altered our course to the 
westward, as the land drops away on the other side 
of Dranova Island, and we did not wish to lose 
sight of it altogether. More than ten miles off 
shore the Danube water debouching from St. 
George's Mouth makes a sharp line of color de- 
marcation with that of the Black Sea, the former 
being an " absinthe frappe " color and the latter a 
deep sapphire. 

Considering the perfect weather conditions we 
decided not to put into Kustendje, but keeping a 
good offing to take a departure from the light on 
Galata Point, and then either cut across the gulf 
for the Bosporus or lay a course for Bourgas, 
according to conditions. During the afternoon we 
lost the land altogether, but picked it up toward 
evening, and by seven o'clock were off Kustendje 
and about fifteen miles out. 

The evening was a lovely one, the air of a de- 
234 



FROM SULINA 

lightful temperature, very clear and the sea like 
a mill pond. A big school of porpoises came over 
to play with the boat, and the water was so spark- 
lingly clear and of such a glassy surface that we 
were able to follow all their movements even when 
they plunged to their fullest depth. They had not 
the slightest fear of the noise of the motor, but 
swam dangerously close to the propeller and fre- 
quently rubbed themselves against the sides of the 
boat. One sportive youngster kept getting across 
the stem ; for almost an hour I lay on my face for- 
ward with my head over the bow watching him. 
He was playful as a puppy and at last invented 
a little game of his own. Lying across the stem 
he would let the curve of the bow roll him over 
and over, presently disappearing to swim back and 
repeat the performance. I have watched porpoises 
in many waters of the globe, but have never seen 
any as kittenish as these. 

As soon as the darkness came we picked up our 
lights, got our position by cross-bearings and laid 
a course for Bourgas, which would take us about 
twenty miles off Varna. Dividing the night into 
two-hour tricks we should have passed it very com- 
fortably had we not been disturbed by the erratic 
behavior of the motor. In my watch below I was 

235 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

repeatedly awakened by its " missing," but going 
over it as carefully as I could was unable to find 
anything wrong, and finally concluded that the 
trouble had something to do with the lighter qual- 
ity of the fuel. 

Aside from this motor annoyance the night 
passed uneventfully. A little before midnight the 
breeze had sprung up freshly ahead, and by three 
o'clock had kicked up such a head sea that we made 
very little progress. During my trick at the wheel 
from two to four I was much puzzled by some pe- 
culiar lights flaring up from the sea all about, but 
on passing closer to one of these I discovered it to 
be a bonfire on the deck of a good-sized yawl, and 
was afterwards told that they were built by the 
fishermen to attract the sturgeon to the set-lines. 

At daybreak the wind hauled westerly and be- 
gan to blow very hard, so that before long the sea 
was combing nastily and for the sake of getting a 
lea we altered our course to the westward. The 
sunrise shone against the flanks of high saffron- 
colored mountains about fifteen miles away. This 
was the abrupt end of the Balkan Range which 
separates Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia. 

" Varna is there," said Pomeroy, pointing to 
a great rift in the hills. " Shall we put in? " 

236 



FROM SULINA 

I answered that on the contrary I should advise 
holding straight on our course for Bourgas Bay 
and then, if the weather still remained as fine, to 
head off straight across the bight for the Bos- 
porus, this last being a run of one hundred and 
twenty-one miles. The glass was steady at 30.50, 
and the breeze, while strong, was from a good 
quarter, but there was a rising, choppy sea which 
threw the boat about rather violently, so for the 
sake of getting better water we edged in toward 
the land. 




CHAPTER XIII 

TO BOURGAS 

[T was still early in the morning and 
Ranney's wheel, when suddenly the 
forward engine began to " miss," 
making, at the same time, a peculiar 
and violent noise, while the speed of 
the boat was checked by half. A hurried exam- 
ination of the motor showed that the spiral spring 
on the forward exhaust valve had snapped, thus 
putting the forward cylinder out of action, and 
throwing the entire burden of the work upon its 
mate. 

This was the first accident to any part of the 
motor which had occurred since leaving London, 
our early trials being due to defective packing and 
nuts not hardened down. But although inconve- 
nient and annoying we did not at first regard the 
situation as serious, having spare parts for practi- 
cally every part of the engine which was subject 
to breakage. 

238 



TO BOURGAS 

On getting out the spare, however, we made a 
very unpleasant discovery. A comparison with the 
broken part showed that in order to fit the spring 
to the valve it was necessary to heat the last spiral, 
curl it in upon itself and flatten the under surface ; 
in short, a job which needed a forge and a vise 
to perform. It was also one spiral too long. 

We looked at each other in some dismay; the 
Beaver was drifting rapidly out to sea and wallow- 
ing violently about on the short, breaking chop 
which was increasing as we got farther from the 
land. There was no question of anchoring as we 
were near the one hundred fathom curve, we had 
no sea anchor, we were not in the course of any 
vessel, and the distant peaks of the Balkan Moun- 
tains were growing dim. 

It is not agreeable to be broken down and 
blowing off shore in a small motor boat on the 
Black Sea within one day of the time due for the 
Equinoctial gales. Although we had made the at- 
tempt many times we had never been able to run 
the motor on one cylinder alone for more than a 
couple of miles at the most, since to do so inter- 
fered with the water circulation, with the result 
that the cold water all remained in the jacket of 
the idle cylinder, while the working one quickly 

239 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

heated up, running slower and more laboriously 
until it finally stopped. When this occurred it was 
necessary to cool the cylinder before the motor 
could be started again, and the only immediate way 
of doing this was to turn it over by hand, a terrific 
job and requiring perhaps half or three quarters 
of an hour of the most extreme physical effort. 
With the breeze off shore and no bottom which we 
could reach, it scarcely seemed worth while to try 
to fetch the land on one cylinder, so we set about 
to see what we could do with the spare spring. 

Accordingly, we got out the valve, removed the 
broken spring, and tried to get the new one in its 
place. At this point we found that we could not 
squeeze the spring together enough to adjust it. 
Using the long clutch-lever to gain power we 
jammed the spring between it and the after thwart, 
only to find that when compressed it was barely 
too long for insertion, and that even if we had got 
it in we could not have kept it in place against the 
cap on the valve. As we worked the sea was rising, 
the boat tumbling about and the spray beginning 
to wash into the " engine room," as we called the 
open amidships section occupied by the motor. 

"It is no use," said Pomeroy. " We can't fit 
this thing without a machine shop." 

240 




?^-C=^rmf 



Varna, Roumania. 

" How far is Batoum? " asked Ranney, observ- 
ing our drift. 

" About seven hundred miles to leeward. It 
would be better to try for Varna, which is about 
fifteen miles to windward." 

Poor as it was this seemed to be our only chance, 
so we jammed down the forward air valves to 
lighten the work as much as possible for the after 
cylinder, heated up and cranked the motor. Dan 
responded sluggishly, and we began to crawl to- 

241 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

ward the distant Balkan Mountains at the rate of 
about two miles an hour, bucking a hard breeze 
and a lumpy sea. 

" Do you think you can make Dan do it? " Ran- 
ney asked, with a somewhat pardonable curiosity. 
I told him that I thought so, but he knew that I 
was not telling the truth. " Suppose he quits? " 
he asked. 

" Then," said Pomeroy, " there will be a sal- 
vage job for somebody." 

But we all knew that the chances for being 
picked up were very poor, as the Beaver was 
painted the blue Admiralty " disappearing color " 
and without any spars or sails. 

By plugging the water circulation outlet, which 
one could do by reaching over the side and then 
opening the drip cock of the water chamber be- 
longing to the working cylinder, one could some- 
what delay the heating up process, as the result 
was to keep a steady stream of water passing 
through, where otherwise the circulation was en- 
tirely arrested. But the outlet of this stream of 
water was down into the bilge of the boat. As 
we had no way of piping it over the side two men 
were kept busy bailing, one with a pump, a hand 
affair, the other with a bucket. This was a tedi- 

242 



TO BOURGAS 

ous job, but we were only too willing to keep bail- 
ing all day if only the blessed stream would con- 
tinue to run. Before we had gone far the single 
cylinder began to show signs of fatigue, and could 
only be kept at its work by the most careful ma- 
nipulation of the different controls. 

Two hours passed in this way. Ranney would 
have stopped the motor, when I jockeyed the motor 
with every resource at hand. At times when we 
took a big sea full it was necessary to throw out 
the clutch or the sudden strain on the propeller 
would have stopped the motor, when I doubt if 
we could have started it again, as the jacket was 
so hot that one could not hold one's hand against 
it. To make matters worse, turning the motor 
over so slowly and with so little fuel permitted 
the cooling of the combustion chamber, so that it 
was necessary to keep the blast lamp going con- 
tinually, a difficult matter with the wind and spray. 
Several times we thought that it was finished, and 
that we were doomed to the fate of a derelict, but 
each time a careful manipulation of the control 
brought renewed life to the almost exhausted 
machine. 

Another hour passed, and still the motor 
pounded wearily on. Standing there watching 
17 243 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

every symptom of failing breath and respiration 
was like fighting the slow approach of death for 
the waning life of a man. At times, from some 
subtle cause, the strength of the motor would 
flicker up, only to ebb again almost to the point 
of syncope. 

The mountains loomed higher; a mosque, then 
a slender minaret appeared against the dull green 
slope far up the bight. Pomeroy and Ranney were 
almost exhausted from their bailing, so I relieved 
one of them. As we approached the shore the 
sea grew quieter and the wind lightened, so that 
while our power was gradually diminishing our 
progress was, if anything better. Within three 
or four miles of the point on the southern side of 
the bay the motor suddenly stopped. We took a 
sounding, and finding about thirty fathoms of 
water, bent our cable to a long towline and got 
bottom with the anchor. 

Thereafter came the laborious job of turning 
over the engine by hand to get cold water around 
the hot cylinder, which task fell somewhat solidly 
upon me, being the only one aboard heavy enough 
to crank the motor. Ten successive revolutions 
were all that I was up to without a breathing spell. 

In time this cooled the cylinder off enough to 
244 




A Turkish schooner at Varna. 



get the motor going again, and we managed to 
work in through blessedly still water almost to the 
breakwater, where the engine collapsed again. It 
was then getting late in the afternoon, having taken 
us all day to work our way in. While lying there 
waiting for the motor to cool sufficiently to take 
us the rest of the way, a little schooner came in, 
flying the Turkish flag, but we noticed that she did 
not come from a direction which would have 
brought her within sight of us had we completely 
broken down. 

Our last gasping effort carried us inside the 
breakwater, dipping to a Bulgarian man-of-war 

245 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

as we passed, and within fifty meters of the quay 
the motor snorted feebly and expired, but our way 
carried us alongside. Being the first motor boat 
which had ever been seen in this port, so far as we 
could ascertain, we were viewed with curiosity and, 
our American ensign being unknown, with some 
suspicion. We were too tired to do more than 
sit in the cockpit and smoke dejectedly, but we 
handed up our ship's papers and passports to a 
somewhat peremptory official, who appeared to be 
the doctor of the port, and told him to kindly take 
them and clear out and not bother us. 

I am afraid that we were more inclined to be 
disgusted with our hard luck than grateful over 
being in port instead of flopping around on the 
Black Sea. Pomeroy and Ranney went below and 
busied themselves in silence, Pomeroy writing in 
his log book the following : 

" . . . and about ten miles from Galata Point 
the forward engine exhaust valve spring broke, 
and with great trouble slowly worked our way into 
Varna. Once we were forced to let go the anchor, 
and again just outside the breakwater. Get in at 
5 and tie up to the quay. . . . Criminal for the 
engine builders to send a boat to sea with spare 
parts in such a condition." 

246 



TO BOURGAS 

In regard to this last I will simply make the 
comment that we were ourselves equally to blame 
for not having more carefully examined all of 
these spare parts; still, they looked exactly alike, 
and one does not dismount one's entire motor for 
the sake of fitting new parts. 

I don't know what Ranney did, but have a 
strong suspicion that he either whitened his shoes 
or pressed his trousers with his patent iron. 

Eventually I gathered energy enough to rig my- 
self out in a suit of very loud-checked clothes which 
I brought especially to impress the natives of out- 
landish parts, and climbed up the quay, where I 
presently fell in with a beach-comber who directed 
me to a gentleman who proved to be one of the 
agents of a shipping house, the head of which, a 
Herr Hoffmann, we had met in Braila. This gen- 
tleman told me that one of their steamers was com- 
ing in that evening, and kindly offered to ask his 
chief engineer to help us. 

A little later the vessel arrived, a trim little ship 
of perhaps two thousand five hundred tons, named 
the Relet. My new-found friend took me aboard 
and introduced me to the captain and chief, who 
were Austrians, and, like all of their nationality 
with whom I have ever come in contact, kind and 

247 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

courteous. The chief took our spring and spare 
valve aboard his ship, where he adjusted them, 
afterwards bringing them aboard the Beaver arid 
setting them up. 

"If there is any chance of your having trouble 
with your motor," said the captain, " you had bet- 
ter not try to make the run to Constantinople. If 
you like I will give you a tow." 

I asked him what speed his vessel made, and he 
told me eleven knots, at which I said that as our 
steering gear was defective, I did not think that 
it would be safe for us to tow at that pace through 
such broken water as we were apt to find outside. 

The following morning we started the motor 
and ran the boat around inside the breakwater, 
when the behavior of the engine proved far from 
satisfactory. For some reason both cylinders kept 
repeatedly " missing " ; in the case of the after one 
I think that this may have been due to our having 
run it hot for so long a time the previous day, 
while with the forward one the new valve spring 
did not fit perfectly and occasionally jammed, 
throwing the forward cylinder out of its beat, all 
of which was extremely annoying, the weather be- 
ing perfect, with a comparatively smooth sea and 
a bright, cloudless sky. 

248 




Towing behind the Kelet." 
249 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" You had better let me give you a tow," said 
the captain of the Kelet, who had witnessed our 
difficulties. " I sail in an hour, call at Bourgas 
and go on to Constantinople to-night." 

Discussing the matter among ourselves, we de- 
cided that, considering the bad behavior of the 
motor and the trick which it had served us the day 
before, we should do better to accept the captain's 
offer than to put to sea again under our own power. 
If it breezed up we could always cast off and go 
our own gait, but as the weather seemed to be 
fixed fair it was possible that we might tow straight 
through to the Bosporus without encountering any 
rough water. Accordingly, we took two towlines 
from the port and starboard stern chocks of the 
Relet and a little later steamed out of the harbor 
in tow. 

Once clear of the bay the steamer headed down 
the coast and struck her pace, when we were not 
long in discovering that as a barge the Beaver was 
very far from being a success. Long and narrow 
and deep-laden, it was almost impossible to keep 
her lined up ; she would take a sudden sheer to port 
or starboard, then forge ahead like a rope ferry- 
boat and could only be brought back with a great 
deal of difficulty, a thing which struck us as odd, 

250 



TO BOURGAS 

for under her own power she ran as true as a die. 
No doubt we should have done better with a single 
towline, but once under way we could no longer 
communicate with the folk on the steamer owing 
to the roar of water under our bows. 

About noon it began to breeze up with the usual 
nasty, choppy sea, through which we plunged like 
a porpoise. The constant tendency of the boat to 
take a sheer caused me a great deal of anxiety, 
as I knew our steering gear to be very frail, owing 
to the necessity of carrying the tiller lines through 
five leads from the tiller to the wheel, and I was 
afraid that if one of these lines were to suddenly 
carry away, as had happened many times before, 
the Beaver, deeply laden as she was, would take 
a side sheer, be dragged on her beam ends, and 
either fill or roll over before one could reach the 
tiller or slip the towline. Altogether it was nerv- 
ous, disagreeable work, with one hand at the wheel 
and another standing by to grab the helm, and we 
decided that on reaching Bourgas Bay we would 
proceed to Constantinople under our own power 
rather than go through the night with similar con- 
ditions. 

Halfway to Bourgas the sea became about as 
rough as we could stand it while being " snaked " 

251 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

through the water at eleven knots. The passen- 
gers aboard the steamer were regarding us with 
great interest, and presently the captain and the 
chief came aft, followed by one of the hands car- 
rying a basket and a coil of heaving line. The 
basket was lowered into the water and the line paid 
out until it came alongside us, making great leaps 
from the crest of one wave to the next. We 
grabbed it with our boat hook, hauled it aboard 
and discovered the contents of the basket to be 
most excellent Austrian bottled beer. 

On arriving at Bourgas Bay the captain of the 
Relet and I went ashore for a walk about the 
quaint, semi-Oriental town and along the high bluff 
overlooking the sea. Bourgas is in Eastern Rou- 
melia on the south side of the Balkan Mountains 
from Varna, which is in Bulgaria proper. The 
principality of Bulgaria, which separated from 
Turkey in 1878, has, like all of the Balkan coun- 
tries, a very mongrel population, of which at this 
day scarcely twenty per cent are Turks. The Bul- 
garians proper are Christians, but do not recognize 
the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Church, 
which leads to continual throat-cutting between 
these dissenting sects, to the damage of their souls 
and the infinite relish of the Moslem. 

252 




253 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

The Balkan Peninsula and especially Bulgaria 
present peculiar difficulties to the traveler, the chief 
of which is the question of language. One speaks 
Turkish, Bulgarian, Greek, Roumanian, Arme- 
nian, Kurzo-Wallachian, Yiddish, with a few dia- 
lects which are spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 
and also those of the Circassians and Georgians. 
There is also an important language, Serbo-Croa- 
tian, which is in fairly common use over the west- 
ern part of the Peninsula, while the various Euro- 
pean tongues are spoken by the more educated 
people. No three languages would be enough to 
take one about the Balkans away from the beaten 
paths. Turkish is the most useful; next to that for 
the cities, Greek, French, and German, and for the 
interior, Bulgarian and Roumanian. Of all the 
European tongues English appears to be the most 
rare; there are a few American commercial trav- 
elers now beginning to filter into the Balkans, but 
these are usually men selected for their polyglot 
abilities. Among languages we must not forget 
the Chingeni of the gypsies. 

Bulgaria (ancient Moesia) was the last country 
to free itself from Turkish rule. Roughly speak- 
ing, the area of this principality is a little larger 
than that of the State of Indiana, but its san- 

254 



TO BOURGAS 

gulnary history would be quite sufficient for a 
country many times its size. 

Bulgaria is partly mountainous, partly table- 
land. From the Danube, which bounds it on the 
north, it stretches away in a bare, arid plain, ris- 
ing gently upward to the northern slopes of the 
Balkan Mountains. On the south side of this 
range lies the fertile valley of the Maritza, which 
is shut in on the south by the big Rhodope Moun- 
tains, some of the higher peaks of which, Muss-ala 
and Rila, reach an elevation of 9,615 and 8,790 
feet. This range is the geographical separation 
between Bulgaria and Turkey, and is a wild and 
impassable region of lofty precipices, high moun- 
tain passes, and torrential streams. It was into 
these fastnesses that Miss Stone, the American 
missionary, was carried by the Bulgarian bandits 
who kidnaped her. 

Speaking of Miss Stone reminds me of a story 
which was told me in Constantinople by an Eng- 
lish newspaper correspondent who was one of the 
principal actors. I will relate it just as it was 
told me. 

Miss Stone, it appears, was kidnaped by a band 
of Pomakes — Mohammedan Bulgarian mountain- 
eers — among whom she was working. These Po- 

255 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

makes, although a Bulgarian-speaking people, are 
nomadic and have always followed brigandage as 
a profession. They are, in fact, to-day the only 
real brigands left in that part of the world. As 
the country has become better policed they have 
retreated into the inaccessible districts of the Rho- 
dope Mountains, whither it was that they trans- 
ported Miss Stone and her companion, demanding, 
unless my memory is at fault, a ransom of one 
hundred thousand dollars, gold. As there seemed 
to be no prospect of obtaining her release in any 
other way, the sum was sent from the United 
States to the American ambassador at Constanti- 
nople with instructions to liberate the missionary. 
But here there came a hitch, neither party in the 
transaction being willing to trust the other. The 
ambassador demanded the custody of Miss Stone 
before paying over the money. To this the brig- 
ands replied that while they did not doubt the 
integrity of this diplomat, yet, considering the 
delicate nature of their position and the fact that 
it might be unjustly considered one beyond the 
obligations of good faith, they must insist upon 
getting their money first. In the end they won 
their point, holding as they did the trump cards. 
There were other large sums of money, but there 

256 



TO BOURGAS 

was only one Miss Stone. The ambassador, with 
a chivalry and generosity of which one cannot 
speak too highly, made himself personally respon- 
sible for the amount of the ransom and dispatched 
two of his attaches to turn over the treasure to the 
brigands. 

But in the meantime every newspaper corre- 
spondent in the Levant was on the spot, anxious 
to be in at the rescue and get Miss Stone's story. 
The result was so formidable a band that it be- 
came obvious to the Americans that they would 
be unable to keep their rendezvous with the ban- 
dits unless they could get rid of the correspondents. 
In vain they assured the newspaper men that their 
mission was not to obtain custody of the person 
of the missionary, but merely to pay over the 
money, and that the brigands would not release 
Miss Stone until after the ransom had been re- 
ceived and convoyed to a place of safety. This 
statement the correspondents received with a wink, 
considering it a Yankee trick to throw them off 
the trail. 

Thereafter began a game of hare and hounds. 
The brigands had required that the ransom be 
brought high up into the hills where there would 
be no danger of their surprise and capture, and 

257 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

as the guard attached to the treasure was limited 
to a squad of Zaptie or provincial police, it was 
evident to the Americans that with the formidable 
array of armed and mounted correspondents it 
would be impossible to perform their mission. 
They accordingly tried by all sorts of ruses to 
shake the correspondents off their trail, but the 
wily newspaper men told each other that where 
the gold was there would Miss Stone be also, and 
accordingly set watches and relieved one another 
in mounting guard over the treasure box. Disre- 
garding the maneuvers of the Americans they 
clung like burrs, and so for days this ridiculous 
chase went on, up and down the country, with 
false marches here and countermarches there, day 
and night, while the Americans raged and swore 
and the correspondents grinned and advised them 
to send away their escort and " let them in on the 
game." Miss Stone waited patiently in the little 
hut high up in the mountains, and her companion 
nursed her newborn baby, and their Pomake cap- 
tors fretted and fumed and grew sulky and sus- 
picious. 

In the end the Americans had recourse to their 
Yankee ingenuity. Removing the ransom from its 
strong box, they filled the latter with stones. Then 

258 



TO BOURGAS 

giving out to the correspondents that they had 
spoiled the whole affair, they announced their in- 
tention of returning to Constantinople the next 
morning to report that nothing could be done as 
long as their movements were so hampered. That 
night the box containing the supposed treasure 
was stealthily smuggled out of camp, yet not so 
stealthily but that the keen-scented correspond- 
ents got wind of it and followed on its trail. 
Once they had gone the Americans quickly broke 
camp, held their rendezvous with the brigands, 
paid over the money, and returned to Constan- 
tinople. 

Before long the correspondents discovered that 
they had been duped, and returned to town, expect- 
ing to find that Miss Stone had been rescued and 
that the laugh was on them. But to their great 
surprise they learned that the Americans had told 
them the truth and that there was still no sign of 
the missionary, at which information they were 
greatly cheered and decided that the laugh would 
not be on them after all, but upon the altruistic 
American ambassador. 

A week passed and nothing was seen of Miss 
Stone. The smiles of the correspondents broad- 
ened. Every day a delegation of newspaper men 
18 259 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

called at the embassy, and the genial query, " Any 
news of Miss Stone? " assumed the proportions of 
an insult. Almost a fortnight passed, and then, 
to the surprise of everybody, including, as my in- 
formant claimed, the ambassador himself, Miss 
Stone and her companion arrived, none the worse 
for their sojourn among the Pomakes. 

The scenery about Kazanlik, on the south slope 
of the Balkan Mountains in eastern Roumelia, is 
very beautiful, and the principal industry is a most 
aesthetic one, being that of the culture of the 
Damask rose for the extraction of the rose attar. 
Here the whole countryside is planted in rose trees, 
the gardens extending high up on the mountain 
slopes. 

The Bulgarian people have made great social 
strides since their emancipation from Turkey in 
1878, and after centuries of cruel tyranny and 
almost constant warfare their little nation now 
promises rapid strides in all branches of national 
life. It has a very well-organized little army of 
48,000 men, which in time of war can be expanded 
to 300,000. Of the whole population, eight and 
one half per cent are available for military service. 
Bulgaria, although a poor country taken as a 
whole, has the reputation of being honest, indus- 

260 



TO BOURGAS 

trious, and economic. Its educational system is 
said to be very fine. 

The Bulgarian people come of a Finno-Ugric 
stock and originally emigrated from the region 
of the lower Volga, entering the Balkan Peninsula 
in the seventh century, and becoming in the ninth, 
tenth, and twelfth centuries the dominant race. 
Thereafter for 500 years they were ground under 
the heel of Turkish oppression. 

Bulgaria is to-day, from a military point of 
view, a match for any of her neighbors, excepting 
Turkey. Her infantry is armed with the Aus- 
trian Mannelicher rifle and the standard of marks- 
manship is high. The artillery is supplied with 
Krupp guns of 1894 model. The cavalry is 
weak. 

Everybody knows more or less about the Siege 
of Plevna, but few realize what a blood-stained 
spot this is upon the map of Europe. It was here 
that Osman Pasha with his army of 50,000 Turks 
repulsed 80,000 Russians and Roumanians in two 
big battles fought July 20 and 30, 1877. In 
December, Osman Pasha led out his whole force 
in a desperate sortie, which was defeated, when 
the defenders were obliged to surrender. In the 
vicinity of the sunny little town of Plevna there 

261 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

are buried nearly 100,000 men who fell in this 
siege. 

Eastern Roumelia is a beautiful country, fertile, 
green, and fresh, with open, scattering forests and 
mountains clothed in green to their very summits. 
Some of these forests are very dense and primeval, 
and we were told that they abound in game — 
deer, bear, pig, wolves, chamois — and among the 
more inaccessible regions a few moufflon. Back in 
the neighborhood of Philippopolis the great in- 
dustry of the country is the extraction of attar 
of roses, and in this region the whole countryside 
is planted in rose trees of the Damask variety. 

But during our brief stay in Bourgas the fea- 
ture which most interested us in regard to the coun- 
try was how best to get out of it. Taking coun- 
sel among ourselves we decided that since we could 
not trust our steering gear, it was very dangerous 
to tow behind the Kelet. We considered the ad- 
visability of stopping over a day or two, taking 
down our motor and giving it a thorough over- 
hauling, but the objection to this lay in the fact 
that the weather was apt to change at any moment, 
when we might be cooped up in Bourgas Bay for 
days or even weeks before we could put to sea. 
Eventually we decided that the best course, under 

262 



TO BOURGAS 

the circumstances, was to sail that night for Con- 
stantinople, and if, on reaching the entrance of the 
bay, the behavior of our motor seemed to warrant 
our going on, to continue. Should it act badly, to 
return to Bourgas, give it an overhauling, and take 
our chances on getting a good slant to make our 
run. There were one hundred and twenty-one 
miles of open sea from Bourgas to the Bosporus 
with no port whatsoever between, and we did not 
think that with the motor running as it was we 
could make more than about six miles an hour. 
That meant twenty hours of sea, but by leaving 
at sunset we counted on being able to arrive at 
Kavak, get our firmin before the sunset gun, and 
then proceed to Therapia. 

Having accordingly decided on this plan we 
went up to the Custom House, got our papers and 
cleared for Constantinople. Then as it was grow- 
ing late we quickly got the Beaver ready for sea, 
little guessing at the tragic fate which lay before 
her. 




CHAPTER XIV 

A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

[HE sun had disappeared behind the 
distant peaks of the Balkan Moun- 
tains when we heated up the motor, 
and saying a bientot to our kind 
friends aboard the Relet, cast off from 
the little steamer and put to sea. 

We three aboard the Beaver were not a particu- 
larly cheerful crew. To begin with we were thor- 
oughly tired out and beginning to feel the strain 
of our long and precarious voyage. The Equinoc- 
tial gales were overdue, it was the 23d of Septem- 
ber; we had been repeatedly warned of the sud- 
denness and terrific force of the storms which 
sweep down from the Steppes of Russia to the 
northward and lash the almost fresh waters of the 
Black Sea into a fury where only a very able ves- 
sel can live. The Beaver, while a good, buoyant 
sea boat, was not fit for any such ordeal as this; 
she was entirely open from amidships aft, without 
any spars or sails, nor did we possess a sea anchor, 

264 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

should it become necessary to heave to. Only two 
days before our motor had broken down, leaving 
us almost helpless off Varna, and about fifteen 
miles out, when we had won our way into the port 
with the greatest difficulty. Since the accident the 
motor had been running badly, for we had not 
wanted to risk losing what might be the last of the 
good weather in the time spent in overhauling it. 
Where we should have got at least nine miles an 
hour out of the boat, we figured that we were get- 
ting about six, and we had ahead of us one hun- 
dred and twenty-one miles of open sea to the Bos- 
porus, with no intermediate port. 

The darkness came by the time we reached the 
head of the bay, but the night was clear, and al- 
though there was no moon it was not dark. Cer- 
tainly the weather conditions could not have prom- 
ised greater favor; for three days the barometer 
had been steady at 30.50; the breeze was soft, 
southerly and the sky cloudless. If it had not been 
for our motor trouble we would have anticipated 
with the keenest pleasure a night run with the ex- 
pectation of raising the coast of Asia the following 
day, and a little later entering the famous and 
beautiful thoroughfare of the Bosporus. Our 
plan was to call at Kavak to present our papers, 

265 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

and then upon receiving our firmin, to proceed to 
Therapia, where we proposed to lie while visiting 
Constantinople. Vessels are not permitted to enter 
the Bosporus between sunset and sunrise, and in- 
asmuch as to ignore this little formality would 
bring down a broadside from the Turkish forts, 
it behooved us not to loiter too much en route. 

Therefore, on reaching the mouth of the bay, 
with the lights of Bourgas twinkling dimly over 
the stern, we were very much annoyed when the 
forward cylinder suddenly stopped work. An ex- 
amination showed that the new spring which we 
had adjusted to the exhaust valve had jammed in 
such a way as to bind the valve, thus preventing its 
free action, but a little manipulation soon cleared 
it, and the cylinder resumed its beat. A few min- 
utes later the after cylinder also began to " miss/ 1 

11 This will not do/' said Pomeroy, emphatic- 
ally. " We have got no license to go to sea in this 
sort of shape. Let's put back." 

Ranney agreed with him and so, theoretically, 
did I. But, on the other hand, there were cer- 
tain very strong arguments in favor of going on 
which I proceeded to point out. 

Pomeroy finally agreeing we held on our course. 
He and Ranney were to take the watch until mid- 
266 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

night, when I was to go on until four o'clock. It 
was then about 8.30, so I went below and had just 
got to sleep when Pomeroy called me. 

11 Dan's got a grouch," he said. " We're not 
doing anything at all." 

Dan was certainly limping on both feet, but a 
little manipulation and a general greasing up soon 
restored him to good nature. I went back to bed 
but was unable to sleep, and spent the rest of my 
watch below listening to Dan's occasional " miss- 
ing " and making frequent tours of inspection. One 
of these revealed the pleasing intelligence that the 
forward cylinder lubrication was choked, and as 
we did not want to stop the motor, it became neces- 
sary to pump the lubricating oil in by hand every 
few minutes. By midnight I came to the conclu- 
sion that we had certainly raised the devil with 
Dan in forcing him to drive the boat all the way 
into Varna on one hot cylinder from somewhere off 
the one hundred fathom line, and that he meant to 
get square with us if only given half a chance. 

About ten o'clock our friend the Relet over- 
hauled us, passing close aboard to inquire if all was 
well. As just at that time we were running 
smoothly we answered in the affirmative, when they 

wished us good luck and forged ahead on their 

267 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

way to Constantinople. At midnight Pomeroy 
and Ranney turned in and I took the watch; as 
the night was fine and the sea smooth the Beaver, 
true boat that she was, ran a straight course, only 
needing an occasional glance at the compass and 
touch to the wheel, so that I was able to leave her 
pretty well to herself and work at the motor, regu- 
lating the air-inlet valves and generally going over 
things, with the result that before very long the 
engine struck a fairly smooth gait and held it. 

We had laid a course from Bourgas straight for 
the entrance of the Bosporus, and as this coast 
is excellently lighted, there was never a moment's 
doubt as to our position, which was fortunate, as 
it is very easy to miss the mouth of the Bosporus, 
which has repeatedly happened to big steamers 
having every facility for holding a true course. 
The entrance is narrow, about a mile and a half 
in width I should say, and goes in at an angle to 
the coast, and as the Asiatic side is high land one 
cannot distinguish any break in the shore line until 
close aboard. There is a lightship fourteen miles 
off shore, but this is not near enough the course 
from Bourgas for us to have sighted. 

At about one o'clock it breezed up ahead, and 
in half an hour was choppy enough to delay our 

268 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

progress considerably. Toward four o'clock we 
began to work out across the bight, and when Pom- 
eroy came on deck to relieve me, for we did not 
think it worth while to wake Ranney, we were well 
out to sea, and the first vague promise of dawn was 
beginning to glimmer in the east. The wind had 
dropped and the stars shone dimly. Pomeroy took 
the wheel while I went below and, after a glance 
at the barometer, which was fixed at 30.50, I threw 
myself down on my bunk and was asleep instantly. 

I had been below half an hour when Pomeroy 
aroused me. 

" I don't like the look of things," said he. 
" Come up and see what you think of it." 

I shoved my head up through the hatch and felt 
a faint, cold draught of air on my face. The sun 
had not yet risen, but there was a hard light over 
the sea and a thin gray veil across the sky. 

" Look astern," said Pomeroy. 

Just over the horizon to the north there was 
a black streak which appeared to rise as we watched 
it. It did not seem to be a cloud bank, but was 
such a blackening as one observes with a hard snow 
squall, a gray black, quite different in tone from 
the lurid purple black which brings up a summer 
thunder storm. 

269 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" We are going to have a change of weather," 
said I. 

Pomeroy nodded. 

" We are," said he, looking at me anxiously. 
We both knew what it meant; even if we had not 
been warned of the fierce gales which sweep down 
off the Steppes of Russia we would have known. 
There was a quality in the air, a threat in the 
cold, thin breeze that warned us of what was 
coming. 

" It is going to blow," said I, " but there's noth- 
ing for us to do except to hold on our course. We 
ought to be pretty near the Bosporus before it 
strikes; if we're not we will just have to make the 
best of it. At any rate, I must have some sleep. 
If it gets bad call me." 

I turned in again, knowing perfectly well that 
there was a fight ahead of us, and wishing to get 
some rest before it began, as I was thoroughly 
tired out. But just as I was dropping off Pomeroy 
called me again. 

" Better come up," said he. " It looks rotten." 

It certainly did. The thin veil of mist, which 
was neither haze nor fog, but a high rushing wind, 
had obscured the sky and was crowding in the 
horizon. Although we could see for perhaps ten 

270 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

or twelve miles on all sides, there was no land in 
sight; nothing in fact but gray, steely looking 
water, with short, angry, breaking waves. We 
were running before the wind, which blew over 
the stern with a hard and steady weight. The 
black line on the horizon to the north had mounted 
almost to the zenith, but now it had taken the 
form of a solid blanket of cloud, blown out along 
its edge in smoke-colored, claw-shaped wisps. It 
reminded me for the moment of a painting called 
" The Tempest," in which the gathering storm is 
represented as a huge black genie, whose vague 
shape sprawls across the sky, the two clutching 
hands being alone defined. 

The gale overtook us, not in violent squalls, but 
with a steady and rapidly rising weight of wind, 
which reared the waves with amazing speed. The 
velocity of the wind lifted with the same gradual 
degree, and at the end of an hour was blowing very 
hard. I would never have believed it possible that 
a sea could rise to such a size in so short a time; 
what height the waves actually reached I shall not 
attempt to say, as I would be sure to exaggerate it, 
and also because waves are only appalling from 
their character. The water which we speedily 
found ourselves in was different from anything 

271 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

which Pomeroy or I had ever seen. We were cut- 
ting across a great eddy, formed by the littoral 
current from the Danube, sweeping around the 
bight on its way to the Bosporus, and as the water 
was almost fresh, the sea was straight up and down. 
In an hour's time it was threatening to break over 
our stern and fill us up, while at the same time it 
was breaking back over the bow. A Great Lake 
sailor might have found himself at home, but it 
was new to us. As Pomeroy said, the waves flat- 
tened out on top and fell back both ways; the ter- 
rible " hacking waves," for which the Black Sea is 
justly dreaded. 

Ranney had not awakened, and as there was 
nothing for him to do we let him sleep. To keep 
the sea from breaking into the cockpit we had 
rigged out our heavy canvas side and after awn- 
ing curtains, which acted admirably as weather 
cloths. The motor had got over its " grouch " 
and was running steadily, and for a while the boat 
behaved so well that we began to have hopes of 
making the mouth of the Bosporus, which we 
judged to be about forty miles away. 

But presently a new difficulty presented itself. 
The weather thickened so that we could not see 
for more than two or three miles, and we began 

272 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

to wonder if we should be able to distinguish the 
mouth of the Bosporus when we reached it; we 
wondered also how near we were to being on our 
course, having run for some hours on dead reckon- 
ing and through strong currents, while our com- 
pass, although remarkably accurate, must have 
been to some extent influenced by the motor. 

" If we miss the entrance," said Pomeroy, " we 
are done ! There is nothing beyond it but the bald 
coast of Asia, with never a place to duck in." 

I observed that we need not worry about the 
coast of Asia, as we would never live to strike it. 
Pomeroy was of the opinion that we ought to edge 
in and pick up the Turkish coast, but I objected to 
this on the ground that it was a lee shore. " If we 
should have to heave to," I said, " we should be 
in the reefs before morning." 

So there we were; off shore we stood a good 
chance of missing the Bosporus, whereas, if with- 
in sight of the land we would not dare to heave to. 

As we were discussing the situation we sighted 
a small brig, hull down, ahead of us, and presently 
three more, tiny gray blurs through the wind haze. 
They appeared to be running on a course about two 
degrees east of ours. 

" Those boys are going to the Bosporus," said 
273 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

I. " The best thing that we can do is to trot along 
behind them." 

" They can't be," said Pomeroy, studying our 
dripping chart. " They are heading too far to 
the eastward." 

" They have got to be," said I. " There is no 
other place for them to go." 

So we decided to follow them. As a matter of 
fact we were both right ; these little charcoal brigs 
were running for the entrance, but first they were 
getting off shore and out of the bad water in the 
bight before it got any worse. 

It was by this time about eight o'clock, and, be- 
ing very empty, we roused Ranney and asked him 
to see if he could get coffee and bacon. He came 
up rubbing his eyes and looking about in bewilder- 
ment. Indeed, it must have been a good deal of 
a shock after turning in of a quiet, peaceful night 
to "break out" and find the boat in momentary 
danger of being swamped. He looked inquiringly 
at Pomeroy and me, and finding us outwardly 
calm, apparently decided that if we could stand it 
he could, whereupon he got out the stove, secured 
it as best he could and set about getting breakfast. 

The sea by this time was very bad; we had 
swung the Beaver up so that she took it on her 

274 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

quarter, but she rode as lightly as a big canoe. We 
were congratulating ourselves on her fine behavior 
when there came a big comber which broke full on 
the quarter, flinging the stern bodily out of the 
water and throwing the boat almost broadside to. 
There was a shock, a jar, the wheel spun uselessly, 
showing that the steering gear had parted. I had 
been expecting this, and jumping aft, clambered 
along outside the awning stanchions, reached the 
tiller and managed to swing the boat off before the 
sea in time to avoid being filled. The wave had 
knocked the stove clear, flinging our breakfast into 
the bilge, and as Ranney was trying to rescue the 
bacon, the parted tiller line was caught in the shaft 
and immediately wound up. Ranney observing 
this tore up the cockpit hatch to try to clear it, 
and I, fearing that he would be thrown down into 
the machinery and badly injured, began to yell at 
him to leave it alone. Pomeroy was laying aft to 
help me, but finding that I could handle the tiller 
alone he swarmed up forward, and at the momen- 
tary risk of being swept off the bow, cleared away 
the ratline stuff which we had provided for spare 
tiller lines, and which was at the time in use as an 
extra lashing for the big anchor. He and Ranney 
then set about to reeve it in, a very tedious job, as 
19 275 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

the flooring of the cockpit had to be ripped up and 
all of the dunnage cleared out of the lazarette. It 
took about half an hour and was finished none too 
soon, as it was very difficult to steer by hand with 
the short iron tiller. 

" This will not do," said Pomeroy. " We are 
not going to be able to run much longer." 

The fact was very evident. Every few minutes 
now there would come a sea which threatened to 
fill us. We had been obliged to get directly off 
before the wind, and we did not know exactly how 
near we were to the land, a bold coast with line 
after line of reefs between the sea and the beach. 
Therefore I got forward to rig the sea anchor, 
which proved to be an awful job and took over an 
hour to accomplish, as the wind by this time had 
reached such a velocity that it was hard to work 
and at the same time keep from being blown off the 
deck. A difficult detail was getting the big anchor 
off the bow and lashing it on top of the " sampan " 
while the sea was playing " diabolo " with the 
boat, all of which had to be done single handed. 
The " sampan " itself I rigged in a bridle, so that 
it would drag broadside on and on its beam ends, 
and in doing this, as slacking the lashings which 
held it down was quite out of the question, I was 

276 



A STORM IN THE BLACK SEA 

obliged to rig it wrong side before and had a great 
deal of trouble in getting the repeated turns under 
and around the boat. 

When I looked astern from the bow I wondered 
how the Beaver managed to live. I have spent 
many weeks on the China Sea and seen some bad 
water there as well as in the English Channel and 
the Gulf of Mexico and other seas, but never have 
I seen such a nasty mess as there was about us. It 
was only Pomeroy's alert and skillful steering 
which kept us afloat, and several times as I glanced 
back and saw a big comber rearing itself over the 
stern I thought for the moment that it was all up. 
But each time the Beaver, wonderful sea boat that 
she was, would leap away from under the tumbling 
water, shipping at the most only a few bucketsful 
of spray. 

The sampan was almost ready when the wind 
haze ahead thinned out a bit and we caught a 
glimpse of a bold coast with high cliffs, which ap- 
peared to rise sheer from the sea. As we were 
driving directly upon it we saw that if we hoped 
to weather out the gale riding to our drag we 
should have to get more offing. But it was many 
minutes before there came a patch of water in 
which we dared try to round up. Even then it 

277 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

was touch and go; broadside on a sea struck the 
boat and knocked her on her beam ends; she 
staggered up, and before the next big one hit her 
was all the way around and nosing her way to 
windward. For a while we hoped that we were 
going to be able to poke into it, but before we had 
got far there came a comber which swept us from 
bow to stern. The Beaver struggled through, hung 
poised, and then fell into the trough as if pushed 
off the edge of a wall; the following sea broke 
across her, but as her weather side was rolled high 
up she took but little water, the velocity of the 
wind carrying the bulk of the heavy spray clean 
across. We came up blinking and gasping and 
wondering whether we were afloat or foundering. 

Pomeroy put his mouth to my ear. 

" This is no good! " he shouted. " We've got 
to heave to! " 

It did not strike me that there was much choice, 
as the reefs were not many miles under our lee. 
But it was evident that we could not last long as 
we were going, and there was always the chance 
that the gale might ease enough to let us start the 
motor again and work off. So I went forward and 
drew my knife across the lashings of the drag, and 
the next sea took the whole thing over the side. 

278 




CHAPTER XV 

THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

[T speedily appeared, however, that 
owing to her trim and the height of 
her bow the Beaver would not lie head 
to sea. Instead she took it a little 
forward of the beam, and seeing that 
we were in danger of being swept again, we started 
oiling the sea with the heavy cylinder oil, of which 
fortunately we had two big five-gallon drums. The 
effect was wonderful; almost immediately we found 
ourselves in a patch of big, hurtling seas, the crests 
of which were barely breaking. A little later the 
Beaver, forging ahead as she rose on a wave, came 
down across her cable which she snapped like 
thread, and we were entirely adrift. But as she 
lay broadside on making good water of the oiled 
patch, we did not go to leeward much faster than 
we had before. 

For three trying hours we wallowed about in 
this way, drifting steadily toward the land. At 
the end of this time Pomeroy, searching the hori- 

279 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

zon with his glass, made out a lighthouse on a 
point of land some distance down the coast to the 
eastward. 

" There's the entrance," said he. 

It did not seem as if it could be so near, but we 
had run fast before the gale and it was possible. 
The outline of the shore was very vague and half 
hidden in haze, but it was evident that the land 
put in deeply behind this point. 

" We must start the motor," said I. 

Pomeroy shook his head. " No use," said he. 
" The sea is worse than it was. The moment 
we got outside of this oil patch we should be 
finished." 

Ranney and I did not agree with him, or at least, 
while not doubting the truth of his words, we 
thought it better to finish that way than to land up 
amongst the reefs. By this time we could see what 
looked like miles of breaking water between us and 
the shore, so we set to work to start the motor. 
This proved to be a trying job as the flying water 
put out the starting lamps as fast as we got them 
going, and also cooled off the combustion cham- 
bers, but by sheltering them with our bodies we 
managed, after an hour of hard work, to get the 
engine hot enough to start. During this struggle 

280 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

Ranney was knocked into the motor by a sea and 
burned his wrist very badly. 

When everything was ready I took hold of the 
crank and heaved my hardest, but without result. 
Relieving the compression, I tugged until my joints 
cracked, but Dan refused to budge. Either the 
forward cylinder had gripped from lack of cylinder 
oil, or perhaps there was some other reason ; at any 
rate there was no yielding. The gale was lashing 
the water across the boat, threatening to douse our 
lamps and render our work of the last hour futile; 
every few moments we found ourselves wallowing 
in a vortex of white, tumbling water. One could 
not see for the spray driven over the surface of 
the sea. Those few moments were like a confused 
and horrid nightmare. It seemed that the one 
slight chance of saving our lives lay in starting the 
motor; there was only room for one man at the 
crank, although Ranney was able to help by get- 
ting his feet against the fly wheel. We strained 
and strained, gasping for breath and blinded by 
the spume; we shouted to Pomeroy not to be so 
stingy with his oil ; the spray was greasy as it was. 
Dan at last held us in his soulless power. He 
braced his ton-and-a-half of heartless metal and 
defied us. I cursed him and pulled with more 

281 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

strength than was in me, and the only result was 
that after several minutes of futile struggling I 
became violently seasick. 

The wind was lashing across us in solid sheets 
of water, and it looked as if we might fill and 
founder from the spray alone. For the moment 
I think that we were in the vortex of an eddy. 
A clumsy, half-blind examination of the motor 
showed nothing which might help us. I realized 
fully that the fault was mine in urging that we put 
to sea without overhauling the motor, after the 
rough treatment which we had given it working 
into Varna on one hot cylinder. I do not wish to 
throw the blame of our position on the engine; a 
careful or experienced motorist would not have 
acted as I had, and I knew it. 

But regrets were useless; there was apparently 
nothing left but for us to take our medicine. I 
flew the ensign reversed and told Ranney to break 
out the life preservers. I also suggested that as 
we might possibly reach the shore alive it would 
be a good plan to secure our valuables, letters of 
credit, passports, etc. The life preservers were of 
kapok and very light and soft. As I tied the 
bands of Ranney's for him he observed with a 
mournful grin: " When I tried this thing in swim- 

282 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

ming in the Danube I little thought how soon I'd 
be wearing it in the Black Sea ! " 

We took Pomeroy's aft to him and at first he re- 
fused to put it on. " I don't mind drowning if I 
have to," he shouted, for the roar of the wind and 
the water was deafening, " but I don't intend to 
be battered to pieces on the rocks! " We had a 
heated argument with him. " You put it on any- 
way!" we yelled. "Put it on, do you hear?" 
We forced it on him, baled him up in it while he 
growled at such folly. When he had worn it a 
few minutes he began to grin. " I w r ould have 
put it on hours before if I had known it w r as so nice 
and warm," he said. 

As it looked as if we might hit the beach with 
nothing but the clothes w T e wore, I went below and 
shifted throughout, putting on heavy flannels and 
my most serviceable outer garments. Then being 
thoroughly tired out and wishing to gain a little 
strength for the final rub, I wedged myself in my 
bunk and got about half an hour's refreshing sleep. 

Pomeroy called me, shouting that we w T ere get- 
ting very close to the reefs. Dead to leeward 
there was a strip of sandy beach, and behind it a 
low building which looked like a boathouse. In 
the hope of attracting attention, I fired several 

283 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

shots from our gun, which sounded like a popgun 
in the blast of the rushing wind. As we drifted 
farther in it looked as if the breakers directly in 
shore were less violent than on either side, and it 
occurred to me that if we could only get the boat 
off before the wind with some steerage way, we 
might perhaps be able to beach her. 

But there was no time to lose, so I yelled to 
Pomeroy to rip off the side awning curtains, as 
these kept the stern from swinging to the wind. 
He whipped out his knife and slashed them free, 
and at the same moment I put the helm hard up. 
The gale caught our high bow and swung her off ; 
heavy sprays swept across the. stern, but we began 
to gather way, and a moment later we were scud- 
ding at good speed through a smother of breaking 
water. Yelling to Ranney to take the wheel I got 
out our second big drum of lubricating oil, un- 
corked it, and holding it across the gunnel let it 
run full bore, about an inch and a half stream into 
the sea. The effect was quickly evident; as the 
big combers hurtled past their crests, instead of 
curling high and breaking, crumbled off in boil- 
ing masses of yellow spume. Before we reached 
the outer reef there was a big oiled patch astern 
of us. 

284 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

" Here we go . . . ! " yelled Pomeroy, and 
the Beaver leaped forward into the moving water. 
A wave crashed against the stern and drove us 
ahead like a maul; the next instant we were in a 
roaring, leaping, spouting chaos of breakers which 
tossed the boat in air and spun her around as if 
she had been a toy, yet driving her always furi- 
ously ahead. Cascades of spume came tumbling 
aboard, but the buoyancy of the boat kept her 
above the solid water. All about us the surf 
seemed to be a lashing maelstrom of yellow froth. 
Everything was greasy, but the drum of oil was 
nearly empty. Ranney, clinging to the wheel, was 
unable to keep his footing; once he fell, and the 
boat started to broach to, but he clung to the 
spokes, and Pomeroy reached down and grabbed 
the wheel with him, straightening us out before 
the next sea broke. It looked to me as if any fol- 
lowing sea might roll us over, and I yelled at them 
to jump back to windward if she filled; otherwise 
they would have been rolled under her, and either 
crushed on the rocks or drowned. My drum of 
oil ran empty, so I threw it overboard and reached 
around to take the wheel, shouting at Ranney to 
get out from under the awning stanchions, and I 
remember being furiously angry when he merely 

285 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

grinned and shook his head and yelled: "All 
right! All right!" 

Pomeroy kept shouting : " No ! No ! Hold on 1 
Not yet ! Not yet ! " 

Oddly enough there was nothing at all terrify- 
ing about this part of it. After the hours of cold 
and helpless inertia in waiting for what we thought 
would be certain death it acted as a stimulant and 
seemed to bring back all of our force. It was 
wild, exhilarating, tremendous, like the rush of a 
racing automobile, or a cavalry charge, or artillery 
going into action. Twice the crumbling crests of 
the breakers came boiling over our stern, but the 
good, stout canvas held and kept us from filling. 
The uproar of the sea was deafening; we were all 
howling together at the top of our lungs, and when 
we saw that we were through the worst of it we 
began to laugh and shout. Almost ashore we came 
down with a crash upon a reef, knocking a hole the 
size of one's head in the starboard bilge, but so 
great was the drive of the following sea that we 
did not sink. 

Suddenly from the long, low building behind 
the beach there came running a gang of swarthy 
men, half naked, with huge bulging muscles and 
red fezes on their heads. They were carrying a 

286 




287 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

surf line, and out into the breakers they came, 
squattering through the surf like a pack of re- 
trievers. But when they saw that we were racing 
ashore in style and needed no help they fell back 
upon the beach, shouting. 

In we drove. We grounded. A sea broke un- 
der the boat and flung her up on the beach. The 
next sea threw her higher. The Turks rushed out 
in the water, caught a turn on the samson post 
with their surf line and hove ahead. We splashed 
out waist deep, scrambled ashore and lent a hand. 
A wave broke into the boat and we suddenly 
thought of our duffle. A line was quickly formed, 
the stuff handed out, baled up in our blankets and 
carried back from the beach. In ten minutes the 
Beaver was filled chock-a-block with sand. 

It appeared that we had driven ashore directly 
in front of the last station to the westward of the 
International Life Saving Service at a place called 
Darboz, and the only spot for many miles, as we 
afterwards learned, where we could have won our 
way to the shore alive. The building on the beach 
was the boathouse; the station was at the top of 
the hill, and thither we were conducted by the um- 
bashi or coxswain of the life savers. There was 
also a Turkish military guard quartered there, and 

288 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

the lieutenant in command, who was not over in- 
telligent, confiscated our effects and gave us to un- 
derstand that we were prisoners. In his eyes our 
gun and cartridges made a very bad case against 
us. When I attempted to take some photographs 
immediately on landing he tried to interfere, but I 
posed him in front of the camera and took his pic- 
ture before he knew just what was up. 

The Turks could not make us out at all, as they 
did not know a word of the five languages with 
which Ranney spattered them. We proceeded to 
make ourselves at home in the station, and the life 
savers, who are a magnificent corps, were very kind 
and hospitable. They gave us dry clothes and 
brandy and tobacco, and made us hot tea and of- 
fered us such food as they had, which consisted of 
bread, olives and onions. 

It was getting dark; we could not find out where 
we were nor how far from civilization, but it was 
evident that we had landed in a very wild and sav- 
age country, utterly uninhabited and remote. Back 
of the cliffs there was a patch of sandy desert, with 
distant forest-covered hills and a lake two or three 
miles long. Ranney finally made the umbashi un- 
derstand that he wished to send a note, and accord- 
ingly wrote out a brief statement of our condition 

289 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

which he addressed to the American ambassador at 
Constantinople, with whom he was personally ac- 
quainted. 

We were given comfortable beds at the station, 
and the next morning Captain Russell, an English- 
man and the chief of the International Service, ar- 
rived from his headquarters, the station at Kilios, 
at the entrance of the Bosporus. Captain Russell 
told us that the messenger with our dispatch had 
arrived at Kilios, a little tramp of twenty-three 
miles, at two o'clock in the morning. The man 
had been unable to describe the Beaver, but said 
that it was similar to a lifeboat, having neither 
sails nor steam nor oars, and propelled by " some- 
thing alive " inside it. Captain Russell had set off 
immediately on horseback, and had ridden all 
through the tempestuous night, arriving at our 
station, which was at a point called Darboz, at 
8 :30 A.M. Part of the way the trail led along 
the beach, and as the gale had driven the water in 
he had once or twice been obliged to ride through 
the surf. 

Captain Russell told us a great many interest- 
ing stories about the International Life Saving 
Service. Under his direction were the five stations 
on the European side of the Bosporus, of which 

290 



THE WRECK OF THE BEATER 

the one at Darboz where we had arrived was the 
last. All of his crews were natives, and a more 
splendid corps it would be hard to find. These 
men are picked for the most part from the fisher- 
men and sailors all along the coast, a strong, 
hardy race of people, and those who are chosen 
pass through a very severe competitive examina- 
tion of proficiency. The average life saver looked 
to be nearly six feet in height, tremendously boned 
and muscled, with legs like a wrestler and a chest 
like a bosun's mate. The candidate is required to 
swim out through the surf in all of his clothes, or 
is perhaps told to jump overboard and swim 
ashore when out in the lifeboat some day in mid- 
winter, with half a gale blowing on to the beach 
and the thermometer well below freezing. He 
must be an expert in rope lore and able to throw 
any kind of a hitch without stopping to think. 
Also his general intelligence must be up to a cer- 
tain grade and he must be a man of good moral 
character, which, indeed, all of the people of this 
class appear to be. Sometimes Captain Russell 
will take several applicants a mile to windward, 
with a blizzard raging, and then have them jump 
overboard and swim a race to the beach, promis- 
ing the billet, other things being equal, to the first 
20 291 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

man ashore. Considering the strenuousness of 
these trials one would hardly think that there 
would be many applicants for the billet, but as a 
matter of fact the position of life saver, although 
the pay is very slight, is most eagerly coveted. 
Your Turk desires of all things a salaried po- 
sition, which is generally regarded in the com- 
munity as a token of worth and responsibility, 
and in the case of the life savers it certainly 
is such. 

But even after the candidate is accepted his life 
is far from being a primrose path. Aside from 
the hardship and danger of the service, especially 
in the winter when ship after ship is coming 
ashore, Captain Russell works his crews at every 
sort of drill imaginable, for the most part in the 
summer months, as the winters are very severe, 
the climate of the Black Sea being similar to that 
of our coast around Cape Cod. One of the drills 
is to take a lifeboat crew out when there is a big 
surf, let the boat broach to and roll completely 
over with all hands aboard. As the boats are 
self-righting and self-baling, they come up on an 
even keel again, while the men are supposed to 
cling to their thwarts, coming up with the boat 
when she rights. 

292 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

Captain Russell told us that one night in mid- 
winter, with a hard snowstorm raging, he received 
news that there was a vessel ashore between two 
of the stations, Darboz and Kara Burnu. On 
reaching the spot he found a big Russian emigrant 
ship, with a cargo of Crimean Jews for New 
York, piled up on the reef a couple of hundred 
meters from the shore. There was a terrible surf 
running, and the conditions being more favorable 
for operating the breeches buoy, he decided to 
take the people off in that way. He himself got 
aboard the vessel with some of his men, the rocket 
was fired from the shore and the apparatus rigged 
from the vessel's fore truck. The poor emigrants 
had to get up the rigging and into the buoy, which 
they accomplished without any accident. We 
asked Captain Russell if they did not have a good 
deal of difficulty in managing this part of the pro- 
gramme. 

" No," said he; " the only trouble w T e had was 
in separating them from their personal effects. 
One Polish Jew came ashore in the buoy with a 
big black trunk in his arms. How he got it up 
the rigging to the masthead and then into the 
buoy beats me. He must have tied it on his back 
and crawled up the best w r ay he could. There 

293 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

was a blizzard blowing, with the wind about 
ninety miles an hour." 

Among the women who came ashore there was 
one who, Captain Russell decided, would probably 
become a mother before morning, but after she 
had been comfortably established in one of the 
rooms usually reserved for officers, this impression 
was discovered to have been due to an enormous 
loaf of Russian bread with which the good woman 
had provided herself against the exigencies of 
shipwreck. 

Captain Russell had his hands full with the 
three or four hundred emigrants taken off this 
ship. It was in the middle of winter, the ground 
being deep with snow, the weather tempestuous, 
and no communication except by horse or camel 
to Constantinople. The station could only accom- 
modate about one hundred people, so big tents 
were erected, the food supply of the vessel brought 
off in the lifeboats, and a well-organized refuge 
camp was established and maintained for some 
weeks until the castaways could be disposed of. 

It is not at all uncommon for three or four 

ships to come ashore in the same gale, owing to 

the treachery of the currents, the terrific wind and 

sea, and the ease of missing the Bosporus En- 

.294 



THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

trance. After we had heard a few of these tales 
we did not feel so chagrined at being tossed up 
on the beach in the poor little crippled Beaver. 
Captain Russell told us that during one winter's 
gale there had been ten vessels ashore between 
Kilios and Darboz in a single night. 

Among other anecdotes, Captain Russell told us 
that early in the summer the Italian ambassador 
to Turkey had come around from Constantinople 
in his steam yacht to visit the station at Kilios. 
The ambassador was highly delighted with every- 
thing which he saw, and returning aboard his 
yacht with Captain Russell, said that he wished 
that some day he might be able to see the opera- 
tion of the breeches buoy. 

" If you like," said Captain Russell, " I can 
send you ashore in it now." 

The ambassador looked a little startled and re- 
plied that while he would much enjoy the demon- 
stration he was not particularly anxious to be the 
principal actor. 

' Then," said Captain Russell, " perhaps you 
would like to see me send one of your sailors 
ashore? " 

" That would be very interesting," said the 
ambassador. 

295 



ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

" It is possible," said Captain Russell, " that 
we may knock your funnel down." 

" Oh, never mind the funnel! " said the ambas- 
sador, who was a good sportsman. 

Accordingly, Captain Russell signaled to the 
lookout, and a few minutes later the rocket came 
soaring between the two masts of the yacht, and 
without striking the funnel, went into the sea on 
the other side. The crew quickly hauled in the 
line and rigged the gear from one of the masts, 
when a sailor jumped into the breeches buoy and 
was hauled ashore, to the great delight of the 
ambassador. 

There is a similar branch of the International 
Life Saving Service, under another chief, also an 
Englishman, on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus. 

We spent three days at Darboz trying, with the 
assistance of Captain Russell and a big crew of his 
men, to get the Beaver high up on the beach, where 
we might be able to repair her and float her off 
again. The boat had been badly mauled. Her 
seams were sprung, her cabin house was shifted, 
there was a hole punched in her side, and some of 
her frames were broken. Working hard for three 
days with a trained wrecking crew, stout gear, and 
two yoke of buffalo, we were unable to get her out 

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ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

of the hole into which she had settled. No doubt 
we could have done so as soon as the gale abated 
entirely and the water stopped settling her in the 
sand, but the whole job promised to be lengthy and 
expensive. We did not see how we were going to 
float her over the reef where we had come in, and 
also we were a month behind our schedule, and by 
the time we were ready to go on the season would 
be too far advanced for us to hope to finish our 
voyage. In the end we accepted an offer for the 
wreck made us by Captain Russell. 

The day after we had come ashore the Turkish 
military commandant of the vilayet called upon us 
and left instructions that we were to be treated 
with every courtesy. Your genuine Turk who is 
not corrupted by metropolitan life is an exceed- 
ingly admirable person, being honest, temperate 
to the point of abstemiousness, scrupulously clean, 
in his person, deeply and honestly religious, and 
of a kindly, cheerful, but dignified disposition. I 
have never seen more splendid physical specimens 
of men than the life savers and the fishermen along 
the coast of Turkey bordering on the Black Sea. 
The life savers were as curious as children, and 
tremendously interested in all of our little effects. 
The whole crew assembled to see Ranney shave 

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himself with his safety razor, following the process 
with grave faces and little clicks of admiration. 
They implored me to play them a tune on my lit- 
tle typewriter, and when they discovered that it 
was not a musical instrument, but a writing ma- 
chine, they were charmed, and every man jack of 
them begged to operate it. When we unpacked 
our things they clustered about, picking up each 
little object, and passing it from hand to hand, but 
always returning it to its place. Not a thing was 
stolen by this corps, but I cannot say as much for 
the soldiers, who were a low-grade mongrel lot of 
conscripts. 

The station was located in a very malarious dis- 
trict, and most of the men were suffering from 
fever. As I had saved the medicine chest, which 
was well stocked with quinine, arsenic, calomel, 
etc., I was able to treat all hands and to leave them 
well supplied with the necessary drugs. One old 
fellow, in whom I diagnosed a serious intestinal 
condition, told Captain Russell that Allah had cast 
the American doctor upon the shore in answer to 
his prayer that his life might be saved. Perhaps 
he was right. Ahmed himself had saved many a 
life from the Black Sea, and I like to think that 
his God may have used us as an instrument for 

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THE WRECK OF THE BEAVER 

bringing his succor from the same source. The 
loss of a motor boat is not a high price for the life 
of a brave man, and as Captain Russell told me 
that he would have Ahmed removed to the hospi- 
tal, it is possible that the prayer of the Turk has 
been answered. 

Our friend the Relet tried to send a vessel to our 
aid, but no one would venture out. This we 
learned afterwards from Mr. Kuhl. 

And so ended ingloriously our ambitious under- 
taking. The Beaver was not insured, so there is 
no chance of our attempting to finish our voyage. 
The beach was strewn with our many effects. I 
picked up one of the sidelights two hundred yards 
from where we struck; the sampan, the little boat 
which we had built in Pomeroy's studio on the Rue 
des Sablons, we found miles down the beach, stove 
to pieces. It was a sad sight to see our little do- 
mestic belongings scattered here and there along 
the water's edge, soggy and full of sand. Every- 
thing had washed out of the cockpit, including a 
very fine compass and my new marine glasses. 
Ranney was disposed to criticise us for bewailing 
our property when we should have been grateful 
for having saved our lives, but the Beaver and 
everything aboard her, except Ranney, belonged 

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ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

to Pomeroy and me, and represented many months 
of hard work and preparation; besides this, there 
is always a certain melancholy about the shipwreck 
of a boat aboard which one has lived for some time. 

But such is the luck of the sea, so we loaded 
what duffle we had saved into an araba drawn by 
buffalo, and set out on our overland journey for 
Constantinople. The country which lay between 
was very wild and there was no road, so we were 
obliged to follow the beach around. With Cap- 
tain Russell as our guide we made the first day's 
journey on foot, winding between the sand hills 
and along the cliffs to the next station, at Kara 
Burnu. This was the point which Pomeroy had 
taken for the Bosporus entrance, as many, many 
navigators have done before to their doom. It 
marks what is known as the " False Entrance," 
and has been the death trap for many a vessel. In- 
deed, this whole coast is an exceedingly dangerous 
one. Captain Russell told us that he has had ten 
big ships ashore in a single night. Fortunately, 
the International Life Saving Service is a remark- 
ably efficient one; its splendid work would require 
volumes for the telling. 

Our second day's journey, on horseback, brought 
us to Kilios, whence we rode across some beautiful 

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ACROSS EUROPE IN A MOTOR BOAT 

country to the Bosporus, where we caught a boat 
for Constantinople. 

But our farewell to Darboz was a sad one. Far 
down the lonely beach we turned for a last look at 
the little Beaver, a small, blue streak at the water's 
edge. Forlorn and forsaken she looked with her 
brave little bow shoved defiantly at the gray cliffs, 
while the swirling water dug her sandy grave. 

An honest little boat, she put up a plucky fight 
against heavy odds, and saved the lives of those 
who trusted in her, even though it cost her own. 



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